Wicked Hit

[MineSweeper]

Boom

[John 3rd]

Ouch. Could ruin her entire day. Did she sink due to that?

[JocMeister]

"Guided bomb"?

[MineSweeper]

Nope.....200 sailors killed and the ship was out of action for almost a year.

[MineSweeper]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

"Guided bomb"?

Fritz radio controlled bomb from a Dornier 217 I think.

[cdnice]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_X

[Fallschirmjager]

The Fritz X was almost overkill on anything below battleship class. It dove with such velocity and the fact that it was a 3,000 bomb meant that it sliced through almost every bit of armor and every deck before exploding. Almost every allied ships below battleship class that was hit by one survived the hit usually due to over penetration. The fuze was not sensitive enough to allow it to explode after defeating the armor but before diving through multiple decks.

[dr.hal]

Seen this before, amazing that it was caught on film the moment of impact....

[MineSweeper]

ORIGINAL: dr.hal

Seen this before, amazing that it was caught on film the moment of impact....

Maybe this is where it entered....not sure though.

[wdolson]

The photographer may have seen it coming in and predicted where it was going to hit. The bomb was a unpowered glide bomb, so it wasn't as fast as modern anti-shipping weapons. A human could track one if he was looking.

Bill

[Fallschirmjager]

AA gunners and the CAP attempted to shoot it down, so yes it was seen. And yes it hit the top of the #3 turret so that is likely the impact point.

[Chickenboy]

You Tube has a four part video series on the damage after the hit. It's from a commercial site, so has an annoying timeclock overlay for most of the video, unfortunately. Warning: some graphic content:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAiKyo1O ... ure=relmfu

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager

The Fritz X was almost overkill on anything below battleship class. It dove with such velocity and the fact that it was a 3,000 bomb meant that it sliced through almost every bit of armor and every deck before exploding. Almost every allied ships below battleship class that was hit by one survived the hit usually due to over penetration. The fuze was not sensitive enough to allow it to explode after defeating the armor but before diving through multiple decks.

From what I could read from the publicly accessible damage control reports, the Fritz X detonated within the ship in one of the lower areas of the III turret. Overpenetration doesn't seem to have been a problem with the Savannah. I suppose that the fusing was triggered by going through the top 2" armor in the turret. Had it hit elsewhere, who knows if it would have triggered?

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

"Guided bomb"?

The Germans were using Radio Controlled bombs/rockets by 1944. Look up the Fritz X as one of them, there were others. Basically it could be guided to the target with a remote control.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

The photographer may have seen it coming in and predicted where it was going to hit. The bomb was a unpowered glide bomb, so it wasn't as fast as modern anti-shipping weapons. A human could track one if he was looking.

Bill

To track them from the bomber (and thereby guide them), didn't these bombs have a burning flare that could be visualized all the way down? Such a flare, or smoke emitted from same, would likely have been visible from the ground too. This would have made it easier for the photographer to prep for the shot.

[Biggus63]

Not only the Fritz X, but they also had the HS-293 glide bomb, usually carried by the Heinkel 177 but also FW 200 Condor, and He-111 and Do-217 bombers. Story and list of 'victims' here:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henschel_Hs_293

[MineSweeper]

The Italian Battleship Roma did not survive one of these hits....

[Dili]

Two hits. And Littorio - at time already changed the name to Italia due fall of Mussolini Government - was also hit in that attack.

Such a flare, or smoke emitted from same, would likely have been visible from the ground too.

No the flare is in back of the bomb, it is not seen from below.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Dili

Two hits. And Littorio - at time already changed the name to Italia due fall of Mussolini Government - was also hit in that attack.

Such a flare, or smoke emitted from same, would likely have been visible from the ground too.

No the flare is in back of the bomb, it is not seen from below.

So-no smoke? A smokeless flare? I'll have to find some video footage of the release.

[Chickenboy]

Interesting video of the controls, training and-yes-smokeless flares used in series as a control beacon. Captured German training video-very clinical, yet interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1imE2GwDK8

HMS Warspite got its bottom blown out by one of these and was out for over a year. Seems as though there were more than a few victims of this clever design-particularly earlier in the war before 'spoofing' the shortwave transmitter became widespread.

ETA: An additional comment about the development of flares for the Fritz from another website:

Early flares left a smoke trail which was so dense as to obscure the target. The red tracer was tried but it was sometimes lost in anti-aircraft red tracer. Green was tried next with a blue-white smokeless type finally settled on. An alternative tracking aid was a blue electric lamp, but since it required an additional battery it was not commonly used. In early tests it was found that half of the flares failed. It was found that the plastic base of the flare deteriorated in storage.