Skip bombing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Skip bombing was a low-level bombing technique refined for use against Imperial Japanese Navy warships and transports by Major William Benn of the 63rd Squadron, 43rd Bomb Group (Heavy), 5th Air Force, United States Army Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area theatre during World War II. General George Kenney has been credited with developing skip bombing.^[1][2]

The First time skip bombing was used was at the Base of Rabaul on New Britain. The United States 5th Army Air Force used B-25 bombers to attack and destroy Japanese ships. It proved to be very effective and received growing popularity. The only draw back was that it took a large amount of skill to perfect. Sometimes the bombs would detonate too soon, or in some cases, sink. ^[3]

The bombing aircraft flew at very low altitudes (200 to 250 feet above sea level) at speeds ranging from 200 to 250 miles per hour. They would release a "stick" of two to four bombs, usually 500 or 1000-pound bombs equipped with four- to five-second time delay fuses at a distance of 60 to 300 feet from the side of the target ship. The bombs would "skip" over the surface of the water in a manner similar to stone skipping and either bounce into the side of the ship and detonate, submerge and explode under the ship, or bounce over the target and explode as an air burst. All outcomes were found to be effective. Unlike the Upkeep drum-shaped bomb developed by the British for use against German dams in WWII, this technique used standard bomb types.

Various aircraft types were used for skip-bombing attacks, including B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers, B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, and A-20 Havoc attack bombers. These were supported by heavily-armed Royal Australian Air Force Bristol Beaufighters, which would suppress Japanese antiaircraft fire with their machine guns and autocannons. Soviets used lend-leased A-20 Havoc and P-40 Tomahawk as well as Il-2 sturmoviks (also used for air defence suppression). Skip bombers were often used by aviation of North Sea Fleet in combination with torpedo bombers (usually the same A-20, skip bomber and torpedo bomber operated in pair). Skip bombers were called "topmachtoviks" (топмачтовики) in Russian, because they were flying "at the level of ship mast tops".

A notable use of this technique was during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea (March 2 - March 4, 1943), off the northern coast of New Guinea.

[edit] References

• Murphy, James T. (1993) Skip Bombing, Praeger Publishers ISBN 0275945405
• Resume of Skip Bombing by Hq. 43rd Bomb Gp (H), 9 March 1943. Original WWII document on the technique.
• Skip Bombing at website of World War II 43rd Bomb Group (H), 5th AAF – Accessed March 2007
• Skip Bombing With Logs at the website "The Jungle Air Force of WWII, 1942-1945" - article on skip-bombing practice.