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Nor was his knowledge required, for he was never asked his views regarding why it had happened. To the Government and the press Wallis was more of an inconvenience to them. He was not asked to the “Court of Inquiry” they knew he had expressed doubt on the design of R101 and he would disrupt the intended “whitewash” of those responsible for the disaster. The blame was laid at the Captain’s feet after all he was dead and could not defend himself!

The crash destroyed for all time Britain’s short lived rigid airship programme. The following year R100 was sent to the breakers. This successful Airship which had not had any failure or accident was crushed and it’s memory destroyed lest the R101 should be shown up as being badly designed. With it Barnes Wallis’s the only man in Britain with real knowledge of Airships was also dumped. So came to an end British interest in Airships leaving an open field to the Germans..

Following the demise of his hopes for Lighter than air machines Barnes Wallis went over to Aircraft design and with Vickers designed the Wellesley and the Wellington using his proved “Geodetic Construction” Britain went into world war 2 with these aircraft.

It was the Wellington, which was used for the first successful bombing raid on Berlin. In 1941 Barnes was offered an OBE which he refused. About this time “The Dams Committee” brought Wallis into join them in their discussions. These lead in January 1943 to tests using 2 Mosquito aircraft to be converted to carry the small spherical bombs Barnes he had designed. Vickers was manufacturing 250 of these.

Wallis wanted to go for a heavier bouncing bomb something near 10,000 lbs. and had a real struggle to get the Ministry to take up his challenge but in May 1943 he changed from these smaller designed bombs and tests were carried out on larger sizes. These Ball type bombs involved a great deal of calculation and design for them to be successful. They had to be able to bounce over the surface to give a definite number of bounces before sinking through the water. The requirement was for the spinning bomb to hit the Target Dam in such a way that it changed it’s direction from horizontal through 90 degrees to a downward run of the Dam surface. This shock change must not set off the explosive until the bomb was well below water level. It was important from what height and at what speed should they be released. The spin given before release effected their performance as did other everything else. A great deal of testing and trials were required. The weight of the bombs exceeded 12,000 lb. And was spun to near 700 r.p.m. Within the aircraft before release at a height below 200 feet from the Lancaster bomber flying 360 mph the bomb could be expected to bounce about 12 times before striking it’s target.

History books now hold the success of Wallis’s bomb design and of the heroism of 617 Squadron in destroying these Ruhr Dams. Lives were lost but the bombs did what they were designed to do.

Barnes Wallis continued working on Special Aircraft Bombs After the V1 and V2 raids upon Britain had began in late 1943 Wallis was given a free hand to design and develop TALLBOY and GRAND SLAM. These really big penetration bombs were needed to pierce the thick concrete the Germans were using to protect their rocket Sites, E.Boat pens, and Tirpitz in 1944. These Tallboys dropped from 22,000 feet could pierce the 24-foot concrete cover to shafts descending 500 feet below the surface where workers and their machine shops were completely destroyed and any survivors.

Nor was his knowledge required, for he was never asked his views regarding why it had happened. To the Government and the press Wallis was more of an inconvenience to them. He was not asked to the “Court of Inquiry” they knew he had expressed doubt on the design of R101 and he would disrupt the intended “whitewash” of those responsible for the disaster. The blame was laid at the Captain’s feet after all he was dead and could not defend himself!

The crash destroyed for all time Britain’s short lived rigid airship programme. The following year R100 was sent to the breakers. This successful Airship which had not had any failure or accident was crushed and it’s memory destroyed lest the R101 should be shown up as being badly designed. With it Barnes Wallis’s the only man in Britain with real knowledge of Airships was also dumped. So came to an end British interest in Airships leaving an open field to the Germans..

Following the demise of his hopes for Lighter than air machines Barnes Wallis went over to Aircraft design and with Vickers designed the Wellesley and the Wellington using his proved “Geodetic Construction” Britain went into world war 2 with these aircraft.

It was the Wellington, which was used for the first successful bombing raid on Berlin. In 1941 Barnes was offered an OBE which he refused. About this time “The Dams Committee” brought Wallis into join them in their discussions. These lead in January 1943 to tests using 2 Mosquito aircraft to be converted to carry the small spherical bombs Barnes he had designed. Vickers was manufacturing 250 of these.

Wallis wanted to go for a heavier bouncing bomb something near 10,000 lbs. and had a real struggle to get the Ministry to take up his challenge but in May 1943 he changed from these smaller designed bombs and tests were carried out on larger sizes. These Ball type bombs involved a great deal of calculation and design for them to be successful. They had to be able to bounce over the surface to give a definite number of bounces before sinking through the water. The requirement was for the spinning bomb to hit the Target Dam in such a way that it changed it’s direction from horizontal through 90 degrees to a downward run of the Dam surface. This shock change must not set off the explosive until the bomb was well below water level. It was important from what height and at what speed should they be released. The spin given before release effected their performance as did other everything else. A great deal of testing and trials were required. The weight of the bombs exceeded 12,000 lb. And was spun to near 700 r.p.m. Within the aircraft before release at a height below 200 feet from the Lancaster bomber flying 360 mph the bomb could be expected to bounce about 12 times before striking it’s target.

History books now hold the success of Wallis’s bomb design and of the heroism of 617 Squadron in destroying these Ruhr Dams. Lives were lost but the bombs did what they were designed to do.

Barnes Wallis continued working on Special Aircraft Bombs After the V1 and V2 raids upon Britain had began in late 1943 Wallis was given a free hand to design and develop TALLBOY and GRAND SLAM. These really big penetration bombs were needed to pierce the thick concrete the Germans were using to protect their rocket Sites, E.Boat pens, and Tirpitz in 1944. These Tallboys dropped from 22,000 feet could pierce the 24-foot concrete cover to shafts descending 500 feet below the surface where workers and their machine shops were completely destroyed and any survivors.

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