Flash Bomb

Richard · #1 (**permalink**) March 31st, 2006, 11:06 AM

I was just reading a chapter on Major Heinz Wolfgang Schnaufer, he was describing a night attack against a Lancaster Bomber. He got within 80 meters and was about to open fire on the British bomber when a harsh blinding light came from it. The bomber had released a flash bomb, which was intended to blind the pursuing night fighter and deflect it from its target.

Tony Williams · #2 (**permalink**) March 31st, 2006, 10:59 PM

That's the first time I've heard anything like that, and I'm frankly sceptical because I've read a lot of books on Bomber Command, their equipment and the bomber war.

If the bomber crew spotted a night-fighter coming up behind, they reacted in one of two ways: if they trusted their rear gunner they'd let him have a shot (he could hardly miss at 80m) or they'd throw the plane into violent evasive manoeuvres, which stood a reasonable chance of losing the night-fighter.

Richard · #3 (**permalink**) March 31st, 2006, 11:29 PM

There's not much info Wolfgang Schnaufer was flying a BF11O he had new search equipment. It's the second half of 1944 the British target was Stuttgart. Sorry to say that’s all I can supply, I was surprised when I read it.

Tony Williams · #4 (**permalink**) April 1st, 2006, 07:02 AM

I've just had a thought: the RAF became concerned that many bomber crews were deliberately bombing 'short' to minimise the time they spent over the target. So they instituted a system whereby the planes had to drop a photoflash bomb over the target which was photographed by the bomber, and showed whether or not they dropped their bombs in the correct place.

As far as I know these bombs were barometrically or time fuzed to go off at a certain height above the target. Perhaps in the case you described the bomb fuze malfunctioned and went off immediately on being dropped. In that case, the bomber crew probably never even realised that the night-fighter was there - it was just coincidence.

Richard · #5 (**permalink**) April 1st, 2006, 02:26 PM

You could be right Tony sounds possible.