stuartp Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 I'm normally a Cold War modeller so apologies if this is a stupid question. I'm currently building Airfix's BIII as LM486 BH-C, 300 (Polish) Sqn, shot down returning from a raid on Karlsruhe 25/4/44. It occurs to me that Karlsuhe is quite a long way from Lincolnshire, although not quite as far as Berlin or Nuremberg. Would that have restricted the bomb load carried or can I load it up with the usual cookie + 250lbs or incendiaries ? I'm assuming it would have been an area bombing raid. Thanks all 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivor Ramsden Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 The Squadron Operations Record Book doesn't list the bomb load for LM486 but other aircraft on the same raid each carried a load of 1 x 4000lb HC, 96 x 30lb incendiaries, 1045 x 4lb incendiaries and 125 x 4lb "X" type incendiaries. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuartp Posted October 18, 2020 Author Share Posted October 18, 2020 Superb, thank you ! Cookie and lots of SBCs then 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 Not the Squadron you are interested in but here are some Bomb Aimer's Briefings on attacks on Karlsruhe which also mention which stations the loads were on: Jari 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuartp Posted October 18, 2020 Author Share Posted October 18, 2020 Thank you, I think I can just about follow those ! I need more SBCs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn Posted October 19, 2020 Share Posted October 19, 2020 Here is a diagram showing the stations in the bomb bay: In the above Briefings those stations marked with brackets like this: [#] (# - indicates station number) in this case it means 2 SBCs on 1 station so there would be 4 across. Jari 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Sinclair Posted October 19, 2020 Share Posted October 19, 2020 Without an exact bomb load reference there is plenty of choice given the variation in loads between aircraft. Bomber Command was out of the 250 pound HE bomb dropping business for most of 1944, resuming in December. Night of 24/25 April 1944, two raids, to Karlsruhe and Munich, Lancaster statistics, 619 despatched, 589 credited with bombing the primary targets, another 11 with bombing secondary targets, 21 missing, 3 Category E (2 enemy action), 1 Category B, 12 Category AC (8 enemy action), 13 personnel killed, 141 missing. HE bombs, 15X8000 HC, 3X4000 GP, 142x4000 HC, 120x4000 M2, 356x2000 MC, 180x1000 MC, 72x500 MC, 16x500 GP Incendiaries, 7,868x30 J (562 clusters), 36x250 Spot fire, 112x250 TI, 36,784x30, 25,581x4 "X", 444,581x4 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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