"question raf cookie bombs (hc) carried by us bombers?" Topic

hi guys
2 questions for you
there was a number of cookie bombs carried by the raf
2000lb hc (high capacity)
4000lb hc
8000lb hc
12000lb hc
did the us bomber forces carry any of these on their missions

question 2
did any of the above cookies remain in service after ww2 and when were the last withdrawn (per version)if you have that info

Your answer may well be in here:

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I don't believe they used them in Europe at least by the US. Although they did manufacture some in the US.

Neither the B24 nor the B17. I don't think the B17 would have been able to lift it even if it fit. Even Bomber command was finnicky about which aircraft could carry them.

I am going to have to check, about the Japanese bombing campaign by XX Air Force though. I know that the US swung around to adopting the Bomber Command version almost in a wholesale way, part way through their effort. Even to the extant of examining their bomb making and bombload mixes for better results. I believe that the B29s did indeed carry blockbusters. Four thousand pound variety for sure.

I know that B29s were used to test some 12,000lb bombs. I am not sure if they were Tallboys or merely 12,000lb HC fitted with tail units.

Time to dig out my copy of 'Point of No Return'.

Of course there is also 'Blockbuster' by Sweet if you like 1972/'73 style rock.

link YouTube link

IRC the US bombers were optimised to carry 250lb bombs, that being the size that the pre-war US Army Airforce command had decided was as big as needed, and they resisted attempts to change this. So the B17 could have carried the total weight, but it had 2 short bomb bays with racks for lots of small bombs – it would have required a major redesign. Probably much the same with the B24.

Even Btitish bombers seem to have carried only one HC bomb with all the other bomb carrying gear removed.

Post war the US did carry out some testing on what was called the Tarzon bomb (essentially a modified version of the British Tallboy) from B-29`s. It saw some use in Korea.
YouTube link

I don't believe they would fit in the bomb bays of anything, other than the new, B-29.

The 8th Air Force were supplied with the US M56 4000lb bomb in 1944, but they were too large for internal carriage by either B-17 or B-24. Freeman states that there were problems carrying them on the B-17 wing racks, and that he could not find any record of them being used on operations in Europe. The largest weapons routinely carried by the 8th's heavies were the 1000lb and 2000lb. The other large oddities carried were the 2000lb GB-1 glide bomb, and the 2600lb GB-4 guided glide bomb, though the latter was only ever carried by a single B-17 on combat trials.

One other thought – the British HC bombs tended not to have very good ballistic properties; they were optimised for yield/capacity. That might well have offended US "Norton Sight" sensibilities. The other factor is that RAF and USAAF bombs had different shackles, so a special version would probably have been needed to be made for US aircraft. The RAF did produce US-compatible versions of bombs for its Lend-Lease aircraft, such as the Mitchell, but I have only ever heard of them in the common MC range, like the 500lb. I should of course be delighted to be corrected.

One correction for bsrlee – whilst the very heaviest HC variants did take up most of the RAF heavies' bomb bays, the most commonly used HC – the 4000lb – was typically carried with a mass of 4lb incendiaries around it. The usual load was 1 x 4000lb HC, and 2832 4lb incendiaries. For factory targets, 1 x 4000lb HC, 3 x 1000lb MC, and 1416 4lb incendiaries. And for the V-1 sites or carpet bombing in Normandy, 1 x 4000lb HC plus 18 x 500lb MC or GP. A Lancaster had a big bomb bay…