SZ/AEAF/1/19/4 - Choice of bombs for attacks on airfields in France, Belgium and Holland, 25/1/44

SZ/AEAF/1/19/4

Item

Choice of bombs for attacks on airfields in France, Belgium and Holland, 25/1/44

1944

4 leaves

Dry, W. F.
Tedder, Arthur William,

Great Britain. Air Ministry. Director of Air Tactics.

The paper was produced following a discussion between Tedder and the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff at which DCAS undertook to investigate the decision not to employ fragmentation bombs in attacks on airfields in the Northwest Europe theatre of operations. The paper, which has MS annotations of a critical nature, sets out the reasoning behind the decision and the limitations, for RAF aircraft, of the 20 lb fragmentation bomb. It concludes by referring to the deployment by the RAF of 500 lb clusters of such bombs, which could be more economically showed in a bomb load, and the development of a British 8 lb bomb, also to be deployed in 500 lb clusters.

SZ/AEAF/1/19/3

With a covering letter from W.F. Dry to Sir Arther Tedder, 29/1/44 [SZ/AEAF/1/19/3].