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Lancaster - WebAR - Bomb Bay
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The Lancaster had an unusually long, uninterrupted bomb bay which enabled it to carry a wide range of ordnance. A standard Lancaster could accommodate loads up to 14,000lb but a few were modified to carry a single 22,000lb Grand Slam bomb, the largest conventional bomb dropped during the Second World War.
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Maximum Demolition
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The 1,000lb Medium Capacity bomb was especially useful for attacking urban and industrial targets, where its ability to penetrate the ground leaving large craters destroyed water, electricity and gas supplies and impeded the movement of civil defence organisations. There was so much demand for this effective weapon that stocks began to run low during 1944 and smaller 500lb bombs and the older and less effective General Purpose bombs were used in their place.
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Fourteen 1,000lb Medium Capacity bombs hang from the bomb bay, the maximum load a standard Lancaster could carry.
Vegetable Gardening
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One of the often-overlooked aspects of Bomber Command’s work was the laying of sea mines along enemy shipping lanes off the coast of Europe. These operations, usually undertaken by individual aircraft, were known as ‘gardening’ sorties with the sea mines referred to as ‘vegetables’. Lancasters could lay six 1,500lb mines during a single sortie and by the end of the war, Bomber Command aircraft had laid 47,307 mines during 18,725 sorties.
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Armourers check the parachute housings on a crop of ‘vegetables’.
A Lethal Combination
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One of the lessons learned from German aerial assaults on Britain during 1940 and 1941 was the effective combination of blast bombs and incendiaries on urban and industrial targets. This led to the development of the British High-Capacity range of blast bombs, the most well known of which was the 4,000lb ‘Cookie’. The blast wave from these broke windows and opened up roofs, after which cascades of small 4lb incendiary bombs could penetrate the buildings and set them alight.
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A 4,000lb Cookie is surrounded by Small Bomb Containers each holding up to 90 incendiaries.
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