skipping 88mm stones

turns it it is nearly impossible to bomb/damage a dam just by dropping a bomb onto it - so a British enginneer spent his entire war time effort designing a bomb that would be dropped several hundred yards away from the dam, skip on the surface towards the dam, sink when arriving at the dam and then denotate at just the right depth- took years of trial and error to work it all out but he finally got it right and the RAF went wild blowing up germany dams

excerpt from DVD
"In 1943, the war was not going well for the Allies. The Nazis were in firm control of the European coastline and only approachable by air. Engineer Barnes Wallis had a bold (and, many thought, bizarre) idea to turn the war around. His creation--a bouncing bomb--was an innovative blend of simple physics and precision flying with the potential to unleash a torrent of destruction on Nazi industry. MAN, MOMENT, MACHINE details what happened on May 16, 1943, when 19 bomber crews embarked on one of the riskiest missions in WWII."

http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=74545

[marees62]

Originally Posted by von stauber

turns it it is nearly impossible to bomb/damage a dam just by dropping a bomb onto it - so a British enginneer spent his entire war time effort designing a bomb that would be dropped several hundred yards away from the dam, skip on the surface towards the dam, sink when arriving at the dam and then denotate at just the right depth- took years of trial and error to work it all out but he finally got it right and the RAF went wild blowing up germany dams

excerpt from DVD
"In 1943, the war was not going well for the Allies. The Nazis were in firm control of the European coastline and only approachable by air. Engineer Barnes Wallis had a bold (and, many thought, bizarre) idea to turn the war around. His creation--a bouncing bomb--was an innovative blend of simple physics and precision flying with the potential to unleash a torrent of destruction on Nazi industry. MAN, MOMENT, MACHINE details what happened on May 16, 1943, when 19 bomber crews embarked on one of the riskiest missions in WWII."

http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=74545

I remember watching a movie a few years ago that was based on that idea. I believe the movie was called "The Dam Busters". Enjoyed it quite a bit. I think they had to modify the bomb bays in order to put a spin on the bombs before they dropped, so that they would "skip" when they hit the water. And the planes had to be going a certain speed and height for this to work properly. And I thing the bombs were round and not the "normal" bomb shape.

[Sailor Steve]

Actually the bombs were the same shape as depth charges, i.e. shaped like a drum.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imageuxford_UK_Feb2005_bouncingbomb.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Chastise

Be sure to scoll down the page to the 'Complete List of Aircraft Involved', and see how many of the bombs hit the target with no effect.