Warbird Information Exchange

Shame on me - I got suckered into reading this thread. I think I'll go read the part where Gary forms Ol' 927's tail cone again.

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

CAPI LYNN
Statesman Journal

This one is the total fool here.

Just a bit of "measurement" info. Mr. Banks says he could reach to 7'. That means he was about 5'6" tall. I'm 6'6" and can easily touch an 8' ceiling. Do the math. No disrespect to those of you who might be vertically challenged, But...to someone who's only 5'6", I'm sure the bomb looked humongous.
And yeah...building a bomb that was too big for any of our a/c to carry would make about as much sense as building a P-51 in your basement. Not that that wouldn't be cool. The only guy in your neighborhood with a P-51 in his basement.

Mudge the cellar dweller

ps. Just remember...when you get to be his age, your memory is the SECOND thing to go.

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Land of the free because of the brave

He says he guesses it must be 10 feet long, which it the accurate size of the the first bomb. He doesn't say 10 feet round. Maybe he did see it and thought it was too long? Would a 10 foot bomb readily fit in a normal B=29 bay?
I don't believe much in conspiracies, but it is interesting that there really were such planes there as white Lancasters. Could it also be possible that he saw a trial fitting of the bomb or similar bomb into a Lanc for some reason?

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

No need. If the bomb had to be carried on "Tallboy" bomb carriers, any Lancaster with that fitted could carry it. If it wouldn't fit inside it would have gone external like the "Grand Slam".

So long as it weighed less than 22,000lbs it wouldn't be a problem.

Regards

Ric

well.... a little googling and i found out that there WAS in fact a 17th aab that was station to provide defence for the B-29's that were to bomb japan. here's the link :
http://www.star-games.com/exhibits/defbns/defbns.html


found a bit more: 17th Airborne Anti-Aircraft Battalion

Source: "World War II Order of Battle", Shelby L. Stanton, 1984

Lineage: Constituted 1 June 1944 in the Army of the United States as Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 17th Airborne Antiaircraft Battalion and assigned to the US Army Forces in the China-Burma-India Theater. Activated 22 June 1944 at Moran Airfield, India. Disbanded 10 July 1945 at Dinjan, India.

Campaigns: World War II: Central Burma

Decorations: None


i'm going to do a little more digging on this. not too sure about the conflicting disbandment dates.

He just happened to be at the airfield that day, so he and a few other guys strolled over to have a look-see.

Cpl Banks- "Golly, what's that?"

MP- "Bomb. Gonna drop it on Japan."

Cpl Banks- "Really? Can I go over and look real close... maybe touch it?"

MP- "Sure. Take your time."

As many of you know my wife and I toured Gen. Tibbets and Col Freebee around Florida for several years speaking of the mission and signing autographs. One of Paul’s favorite sayings was he could fill numerous 747’s with all the people who said there uncle, dad, neighbor or some other person they knew made the same flight to Japan. It was like being blinded by blast flash or the airplane almost knocked out of sky from the blast. It is a subject that has definitely taken its own direction at times. I have to believe when the Col Freebee got Hiroshima in his sights he dropped a bomb that made history. These were great men.

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http://silverplate1945.smugmug.com/AVIATION

The unit history seems correct, but I also believe he said he was a USMC corporal. I also think the 17th was in CBI, not the PTO. In addition, there wasn't a great deal of trading around of USMC and Army personnel in WWII.

BTW, the 17th AAA was designated airborne because they were trained to fly in gliders.

Other question (for UK experts). I remember reading somewhere that there were UK visitors to Tinian during the drops and that they arrived in Lancaster's. Could these have been the white aircraft that were seen by this gentleman?

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

the link i posted earlier confirms that this was a usmc unit. keep scrolling down until you reach the 17 th and there is a brief unit description that loosely resembles the story. it was stated at the begining of this thread that this unit didnt exist, which seems to be incorrect at this point. now what about those lancasters.....???

nobody can sanitize documented history, no matter how much it's scrutinized under a microscope. i find the entire issue / claim / statement ridiculous

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Well, a Lancaster's significantly smaller than a B-29. Using the figs from Wiki, by 1/3.

B-29
# Length: 99 ft 0 in (30.2 m)
# Wingspan: 141 ft 3 in (43.1 m)
# Height: 29 ft 7 in (8.5 m)
# Wing area: 1,736 ft² (161.3 m²)

Lancaster
# Length: 69 ft 5 in (21.18 m)
# Wingspan: 102 ft (31.09 m)
# Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)
# Wing area: 1,300 ft² (120 m²)

AFAIK there were no Lancasters in the Far East except those that came to tour Australia for War Bonds. Those arrived painted in Black, brown and green camouflage. There was an RAF observer - Leonard Cheshire - aboard one of the B-29 VIP flights - in B-29 Big Stink observing Nagasaki... Sorry, that should be Group Captain Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, VC, OM, DSO and Two Bars, DFC.

I can't see even Cheshire would get a Lancaster to deliver him.

There's no evidence and one man's recollection in the face of the evidence that does exist. It's a pity, and rather sad, but just not at all likely.

And why was this thread from 2005 bumped?

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com

I think Banks is the one who got faked.

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"I love the smell of 100LL in the morning."

Maybe you should ask J Cook that question ...

Well, sure, he bumped it, with the (to me) enigmatic:

A link or pointer would be nice, unless I'm missing something really obvious?

Not that it's important, or worth spending any more of our time on, IMHO.

Regards,

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

www.VintageAeroWriter.com