Koblenz Evacuated

[elxaime]

See link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/0 ... 23716.html

If the article is correct, this seems like a very large bomb. Does anyone know the type? I have never heard of 45,000 people being evacuated - the blast radius must be enormous.

A grim reminder of what is coming out of the digital bomb bays of the game pieces we move around.

[harley]

1.8 tonne is roughly 4000lbs

That's a big cookie. Primary munitions of the VIIIth was the 500lbs.. Not sure if the bomb bays of the B17s or B24s could take a single 4000lbs bomb.

[Howard Mitchell]

Neither could. The Lancaster and Halifax bombers had cavernous bomb bays, partly as a result of an original requirement to be able to carry torpedoes.

[Klahn]

The 4000lb bomb, such as the one found in Koblenz, was the smallest of the blockbusters. Besides the Lancaster and Halifax, it was also routinely carried by the Wellington and Mosquito. The B-17 and the B-24 were also able to carry such weapons, but they were loaded externally on the wings. I don't know if they were ever used in combat by the US. (The US had it's own 4,000lb bomb. I'm not talking about the British one on US planes.)