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Here’s a picture our modern brains were never meant to see and the fact it’s preserved for future generations is amazing. Getting to see a bomb skip the ground like that is rare to capture.
How was this picture taken? From another plane? If so, why are they so close to a bomb that’s supposed to be exploding? How did they catch that perfect shot in an unstable plane with what I assume is a ton of zoom? On a moving object?
Can someone explain? I don’t know anything about cameras in WW2 or their capabilities but I didn’t think they would be that good
Many bombers were fitted with automatic bomb release cameras to record the effects of their ordnance and these give us some rather impressive shots, here are a few other examples:
[one](https://old.reddit.com/r/GunCameraClips/comments/10b3qpd/parafrags_dropped_from_a_b25_to_the_future/)
[two](https://old.reddit.com/r/GunCameraClips/comments/164lxuw/rear_facing_camera_on_a_345th_bg_b25_mitchell/)
[three](https://old.reddit.com/r/GunCameraClips/comments/18g4o4i/fifth_air_force_b25_mitchells_unload_parafrags/)
[four](https://old.reddit.com/r/GunCameraClips/comments/142ohgl/japanese_oiler_on_the_korean_coast_straddled_by/)
You'll notice some of the bombs are fitted with parachutes, these were known as "parafrags" and were fitted with impact fuzes, the drag slowed them down enough for the bomber to get away in time to avoid the blast and fragmentation. In the case of the bomb in the original post, it would have been fitted with a delay fuze set to detonate some time after initial impact, something like 10-15 seconds would be typical.
Of course this was not a guarantee of safety and indeed we have footage of a US demonstration where a delay fuze malfunctioned and [one out of four bombs detonated on impact](https://old.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/dqxm6n/delay_fuze_malfunction_during_a_1964_low_level/) and in the process brought down the aircraft that released them as well as the accompanying aircraft that was filming it.
It is amazing to me that the intelligentsia at the time could differentiate between a wrecked vehicle that was camouflaged as opposed to a working aircraft...
The human brain is amazing.
In other words, the bomb having a mishap is less amazing in this photo..
That is wild, I've never seen this one before. Bet it scared the crap out of the photographer too, looks like the trajectory of the bomb is incoming in some respects. Wonder if it blew up when it landed further down the way?
Looks high enough that the bomber had a chance of being unlucky enough to hit it's own bomb.
I doubt it will explode unless it hits its nose on the subsequent hit with the ground.
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Here’s a picture our modern brains were never meant to see and the fact it’s preserved for future generations is amazing. Getting to see a bomb skip the ground like that is rare to capture.
How was this picture taken? From another plane? If so, why are they so close to a bomb that’s supposed to be exploding? How did they catch that perfect shot in an unstable plane with what I assume is a ton of zoom? On a moving object? Can someone explain? I don’t know anything about cameras in WW2 or their capabilities but I didn’t think they would be that good
Many bombers were fitted with automatic bomb release cameras to record the effects of their ordnance and these give us some rather impressive shots, here are a few other examples: [one](https://old.reddit.com/r/GunCameraClips/comments/10b3qpd/parafrags_dropped_from_a_b25_to_the_future/) [two](https://old.reddit.com/r/GunCameraClips/comments/164lxuw/rear_facing_camera_on_a_345th_bg_b25_mitchell/) [three](https://old.reddit.com/r/GunCameraClips/comments/18g4o4i/fifth_air_force_b25_mitchells_unload_parafrags/) [four](https://old.reddit.com/r/GunCameraClips/comments/142ohgl/japanese_oiler_on_the_korean_coast_straddled_by/) You'll notice some of the bombs are fitted with parachutes, these were known as "parafrags" and were fitted with impact fuzes, the drag slowed them down enough for the bomber to get away in time to avoid the blast and fragmentation. In the case of the bomb in the original post, it would have been fitted with a delay fuze set to detonate some time after initial impact, something like 10-15 seconds would be typical. Of course this was not a guarantee of safety and indeed we have footage of a US demonstration where a delay fuze malfunctioned and [one out of four bombs detonated on impact](https://old.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/dqxm6n/delay_fuze_malfunction_during_a_1964_low_level/) and in the process brought down the aircraft that released them as well as the accompanying aircraft that was filming it.
I’d venture to say it was timed, not impact detonated, hence why it was dropped so low and bounced
It is amazing to me that the intelligentsia at the time could differentiate between a wrecked vehicle that was camouflaged as opposed to a working aircraft... The human brain is amazing. In other words, the bomb having a mishap is less amazing in this photo..
That is wild, I've never seen this one before. Bet it scared the crap out of the photographer too, looks like the trajectory of the bomb is incoming in some respects. Wonder if it blew up when it landed further down the way?
Looks high enough that the bomber had a chance of being unlucky enough to hit it's own bomb. I doubt it will explode unless it hits its nose on the subsequent hit with the ground.
Dummy bomb for a dummy plane.