T

HE NEWLY enlarged municipal

airport, four miles from its

Atlantic seaboard town, is shrouded in

darkness; not a light is visible

anywhere. Amid this blackout bustling

activity prevails on all sides. A

laboring truck motor spurts and fades

as its driver moves his heavy cargo of

gasoline across the turfed terrain. A

racing tug glides swiftly to the hangar

for some forgotten piece of essential

gear. Deep, muffled commands,

floating through the blackness, help

disturb the early morning stillness.

At the field's edges camouflaged

bombers are being pulled from their

hiding places by powerful tugs.

Gasoline trucks squeak to a stop in

front of each one as it reaches its

appointed serving spot. Bomb service

trucks, pulling loaded trailers, seek

their preassigned planes to deliver

their "eggs" to the plane loading

crews.

One hour later all trucks and trailers

leave the flying field. Crew chiefs

begin warming up barking motors,

while pilots and other members of the

plane crews file from the hangar where

their squadron commander has just

finished last minute instructions

concerning their early morning sortie.

Soon the planes are down the newly-

constructed metallic runway one by

one, rising slowly with their heavy

loads and immediately seeking to

locate the designated rendezvous point

before commencing their darkened trip

to the target.

A fantastic picture? By no means. At

countless small airports across the

Atlantic as this is written, such scenes

are being duplicated by both German

and English Atlantic patrol squadrons.

Naturally the time might be different;

the whole operation even might be

conducted in daylight at the greater

risk of losing planes. London news

broadcasts each evening indicate that

for night bombing missions this

loading must be done in the early

twilight dusk if the entire trip is to be

made at night.

Have you ever wondered how these

loading operations ― which require

skill and speed in equal proportions ―

are coordinated? What kind of men

compose these indispensable ground

crews? What glory a man can hope to

achieve who knows that when he

delivers this bomb load there will just be

another waiting for him? How they

acquire that sureness of touch in

handling high explosives, when one slip

can spell disaster for many other men

and thousands of dollars worth of

valuable airplanes? All these questions

can be answered in just two words:

intelligence and training.

In 1938, while Germany was planning

continuous bomb supply for her Stukas,

our ordnance department was thinking

of similar problems. Since our ordnance

department is responsible for the

manufacture, storage and issue at the

airplane of all Air Forces demolition

bombs, many problems are involved. In

1939, a school was started at Aberdeen

Proving Grounds, Md., to train officers

for this new work. After three months at

Aberdeen these officers were sent to

Langley Field, VA, for three months'

practice applying the principles learned,

as the Langley Field ordnance personnel

were developing new bomb handling

equipment. Succeeding classes had their

course shortened to two months at each

place. Langley Field courses to train

enlisted men in handling this equipment

also were begun. This program has

progressed continuously and now is

being modified further to take care of

the number of men needed for such

work.

Recent newspaper pictures from

England have shown tractors pulling

four-wheeled dollies with four bombs

strapped to the center pole between

two axles. The actual loading into the

bay of the bomber has been for the

most part by hand. Our highly

industrialized nation is able to produce

equipment to relieve much of the back-

breaking work connected with

handling bomb tonnage.

Our aviation ordnance companies

have three main pieces of bomb

handling equipment: bomb service

trucks, bomb trailers and bomb lift

trucks. The bomb service truck is a

standard one-ton truck chassis with no

cab, mounting a winch and crane that

extends over the rear of the truck bed.

The bomb trailer is a three-wheeled

vehicle with lunette attachment for tow

behind the bomb service truck. It is

equipped with channel irons to provide

rigid seats for each bomb on the trailer

and with a chest to carry fuses; fin

posts for bomb fins are mounted

externally on these chests. Steel bomb

cradles also are carried on the trailer to

keep the bomb from resting on the

ground after it is removed from the

trailer and before it is loaded into the

bomb bay. The bomb lift truck, for

moving the finned and fused bomb

under the airplane, is carried on the

bomb service truck's bed. A modified

form of the common garage hydraulic

jacket, it has three rubber-tired wheels

and a platform hydraulically operated

for raising bomb and cradle.

Despite the equipment's simplicity,

much training is necessary to insure

smooth operations under all operating

conditions. Few men enlisting in the

ordnance department have had

previous experience in handling

explosives. However, it can be taught

to any high school graduate who

applies himself and has a desire to

learn. The fact that any military

explosive must of necessity be safe to

handle under field conditions cuts

accident hazards. The rough handling

a bomb might receive accidentally in

the field must be remembered

constantly by the designer when he is

drawing the plans and specifications

for the manufacturer.

An aviation ordnance man must

spend his first month on infantry basic

training. After that period comes

training in the various special fields ―

ammunition, welding, automobile

mechanics or any of the other

specialties to be found in an aviation

ordnance company. Quite naturally,

not all men have to be munitions

experts; there are just as many

specialists ratings in other sections of

the company. But the ammunition

section is the one with the

responsibility for delivering all bombs

and machine gun ammunition to the

airplanes. Obviously, bombs are the

most difficult to handle because of

their increased weight. Besides the

inherent poundage, the explosive

factor must be reckoned with in all

handling operations. Team-work

consequently must be developed and

kept alive by constant drill for all

ammunition section men.

The ammunition section basic

training and operating unit in an

aviation ordnance company is the

bomb service crew, consisting of five

men: a crew chief and four munitions

workers. Experience has proved that

this is the minimum number of men

that can prepare a bomber's load, no

matter whether the ship is a light,

medium or heavy bomber. Since the

plane crew must load the bombs one at

a time into the plane, these men can

deliver finned and fused bombs at the

plane as fast as the plane crews can

load them. With the new type fuses it

no longer is necessary to fuse all

bombs as a safety precaution before

they are brought to the plane, as was

the case not many years back. This

new method also permits increased

speed (with safety) in transporting

bombs to the airplane.

Tracing the various steps in bomb

delivery makes clear the training

required. They are loaded onto the

bomb trailers by tractor cranes and

transported to this storage area. Of

course the bombs come blocked up on

end entirely free of the fuses or fins.

These components are shipped

separately, reducing the danger

element involved in a freight car's

bumping and jostling. For this

unloading operation munition workers

trained in tractor crane operation are

necessary. Skill and co-ordination in

handling the many levers are essential.

After the various sized bombs have

been transported to the storage area,

they must be segregated and placed on

the proper dunnage. They also must be

inspected for proper lug spacing,

proper fuse threading and general

condition. This field area where the

bombs are stored until needed must be

away from the flying field proper, but

still within easy driving and

transporting distance. Passable roads

are essential. Separated dunnage piles,

segregated according to sizes of

bombs, should be placed perpendicular

to these roads in order to facilitate the

loading and unloading of trailers. But

here again safety requirements creep

in, causing bombs to be stored in many

small piles, rather than a few large

ones. Sand bag revetments are then

placed on three sides and the whole

area camouflaged if it is to be a semi-

permanent location. Naturally, the total

number of bombs in the area depends

on the number of airplanes and the

number of missions contemplated.

Many of the same men who helped

bring the bombs to the storage area

must be used again in delivering them

to the airplane. A steel channel ramp is

placed in the rear of the trailer and the

bomb urged up this ramp to its proper

place by crews using two-man bars.

On bombs of 2,000 pounds and up, the

bomb service truck's winch and crane

must be used. Arriving at the airplane,

the bomb service crew loosens the

chains that secure the bombs en route,

places the channel ramp and a cradle

in position and slides the first bomb

off the rear of the trailer. Two men

immediately fin and fuse this bomb,

while two others slide the next bomb

off the trailer. As soon as the first

bomb is properly put together and

inspected by the crew chief it is lifted

by the hydraulically actuated lift truck

and pushed under the plane for loading

into the bomb bay. Here again,

however, the big 2,000 pound bomb

requires special handling. Instead of

sliding it down the ramp, a job which

in itself would be beyond the physical

capabilities of the crew members, the

bomb service truck is detached from

the trailer and backed to the trailer's

side. Here the bomb is lifted from the

channel and the winch locked with the

bomb suspended in the air. The driver

moves the truck forward slowly about

20 feet, while two crew members walk

along with the bomb to keep it from

swinging or turning. A cradle is placed

on the ground under the bomb and the

bomb gently lowered onto it. Nose and

tail fuse, arming wire and fin then are

placed on the bomb while it is in this

position.

Before rolling the lift truck under

the bomb and cradle, the crew chief

inspects the entire assembly to see that

the arming wire has been cut to the

right length, the proper setting placed

on the fuses and the fin set at the right

angle for the particular type ship the

bomb is to fit. After this inspection all

members of the crew cooperate with

the lift truck until the bomb is in place

under the bomb bay, ready for hoisting

by the bomber crew.

From this description of bomb

delivery it might be assumed that only

men of large, stocky frame are suitable

for aviation ordnance company work,

but such is not the case. Five small

men can, by using the bomb handling

equipment properly, do exactly the

same work as men of larger stature, in

almost the same time.

This new bomb handling

equipment's development grew out of

the realization that airplanes sitting on

the ground partially loaded with

bombs are exceptionally vulnerable to

attack by enemy bombers. Any hit by

an enemy bomb would cause the

damage to be multiplied by our own

bombs' explosion. Then too, since

bombers have to be brought out from

hiding to be loaded, the time interval

between uncovering and taking off on

a mission must be reduced to a bare

minimum. For these reasons particular

efforts are made to reduce this time

interval as much as possible.

With the post-World War I bomb

loading equipment ― consisting

essentially of roller conveyors made

either of wood or steel ― each bomb

presented problems all its own as to

exactly how it was to be transported

from the storage area to the plane.

Further, the bomb was so shaped as

not to lend itself to easy handling by

large groups of men. Today, after

much research in the field of

streamline designs, it has been found

that the tear-drop shape is not of such

great importance, and that cylindrical

bombs (which are much easier to

construct) can do the job with greater

accuracy. Likewise, our new bomb

handling equipment for use with these

cylindrical shaped bombs has proved

itself a simple method for delivering

all sizes of bombs to all sizes of

bombers.

This article was originally published

in the November, 1942, issue of Flying

magazine, vol 31, no 5, pp 56-58, 143.