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The "bouncing bombs" were designed to skip across the surface of a body of water, specifically behind a dam, and nestle close to the dam wall as it sank and exploded. The underwater pressure wave caused by such an explosion was found to be an effective way to partially or completely destroy a dam.

The bombs were dropped by heavy bombers, primarily the British Lancaster. The bombs would be spun up to high speed by a motor, then dropped from extremely low altitude (under 80 feet/25 meters). The shallow angle and backspin would cause the bomb to bounce or skip across the water to the dam, then rebound into the dam as it sank. When it reached a pre-arranged depth, a pressure switch or wet switch would detonate the explosives.

The main version of these, the "Upkeep" bombs, were designed by Barnes Wallis, a British engineer, and used against German dams in 1943. They contained up to 6,600 pounds (2,994 kg) of Torpex explosives.

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12y ago

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