World War II Database

Country of Origin	United Kingdom
Type	Conventional Aerial Bomb
Caliber	970.000 mm
Length	3.840 m
Weight	2540.000 kg

Contributor: Alan Chanter

ww2dbaseAir Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris had a deep mistrust of scientist and their lack of understanding of operational requirements. He was very much set against set-piece attacks as they deflected the growing weight of his command away from his main task - that of bringing Germany to its knees by the systematic destruction of its towns, cities and war industries.

During August 1942, despite misgivings by Harris, No. 106 Squadron at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom were ordered to prepare for a special attack, on the harbour at Gdynia, Poland (German: Gotenhafen) in the Baltic where intelligence reports suggested that the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin was approaching completion, and the battle cruiser Gneisenau was moored.

A special weapon, the Capital Ship Bomb (CSB), designed by Lieutenant Colonel Millis Jefferis, had been developed for the sole purpose of sinking large warships in harbour. Each CSB had a steel disc three inches thick, and each contained more than 950 kilograms of explosive material (RDX-TNT). They were initially designed with a diameter of 45 inches (about 114.3 centimeters), but it was later reduced to 38 inches (about 97 centimeters) to better fit into the bay bombs of Lancaster bombers. Indeed, the ability to carry this bomb had been one of the features of the new Lancaster bomber's final design specification, in order to counter the threat to the vital Atlantic convoys posed by attacks by German surface raiders.

At 1955 hours on the full-moon night of 27-28 August 1942, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, the youngest Squadron Commanding Officer in Bomber Command, led No. 106 Squadron out on the 950-mile flight to Gdynia. Some of his force consisted of modified bulged bomb-bay aircraft converted to carry the Capital Ship Bomb. Among the crews were a pair of Special Air Bombers, Squadron Leader "Dicky" Richardson and Warrant Officer Naylor, from the Air Armament School at Manby, who were familiar with the Stabilized Automatic Bomb Sight (SABS).

When they arrived over the target they discovered that south-westerly winds had blown all the haze away from Berlin straight over Danzig and Gdynia which reduced visibility to about 1 mile, moreover there was a lot of light flak and searchlights about. The poor visibility and the difficulty of aiming the CSB bomb, whose shape gave it poor ballistic qualities that made it somewhat difficult to accurately hit the target, even if it could be located, proved on this occasion unsurmountable, Flight Lieutenant W. N. Hammond, flying Lancaster R5574, dropped his CSB from 8,500 feet through 9./10th cloud and observed a large flash as the bomb exploded. Flight Lieutenant J. V. Hopgood (killed during Operation Chastise on 17 May 1943) and his crew in Lancaster R5551 also failed to identify a target by the poor conditions managed to drop their CSB in the dock area from 8,500 feet in the alleged position of the Graf Zeppelin, observing a very large explosion soon after. Wing Commander Gibson flying W4118, made twelve runs over the haze covered target in an attempt to locate the carrier without success finally dropped his six 1,000-lb RDX before Gibson's nine aircraft set course for home – arriving safely at 0550 hours on 28 August 1942.

The Graf Zeppelin escaped undamaged but was never put to sea in anger. The carrier survived the war only to be sunk off Leba, Northern Poland, in 1947 by the Soviets who used it as a target ship. The CSB was used only on two further occasions by 115 Squadron's Lancaster II bombers, once in 1942 and again in 1943. Harris lost no time in ensuring that the CSB bomb was quickly declared obsolete.

Sources:
Jarrod Cotter (Editor): Lancaster-Britain's Iconic War Winning Bomber (Published by Kelsey Media, 2013)
World Aircraft Information Files, File 021/09 (Aerospace Publishing Periodical)
Guy Gibson: Enemy Coast Ahead (Goodall reprint, 2013)
Patrick Otter: Lincolnshire Airfields in the Second World War (Cointryside Books, 2012) ww2dbase

Last Major Revision: Jan 2022

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