Nagara Submarine Net Parachute Bomb

[pete-c]

John Oliver's book The Air War in the Dardanelles mentions the employment of a '100-Ib bomb fitted with a parachute' dropped by a seaplane from HMS Ark Royal, in an attempt to render the above net ineffective.  No details are provided in the book as to the aircraft used.  This action apparently took place on 8 December 1915.

Would anyone have access to ADM 137/177/4, which holds details of this particular weapon?

[horatio2]

ADM 137/177/4 states: "reports by the Commanding Officer Eugene Louis Gerrard, 2nd Wing, R.N.A.S. [Imbros] on the bomb attack on the Anti-Submarine Net at Nagara carried out on 8 December 1915" so not an aircraft from ARK ROYAL, which was at Salonika at this time.

[pete-c]

That's what I was suspecting Horatio.  As you point out, Ark Royal was indeed at Salonika.  She didn't take all her aircraft with her, though, and it was this that was making me think the aircraft might possibly have been one that was attached to Roberts.  Could I ask if there are any other details regarding this action in this document?

[horatio2]

I can only refer to the TNA Catalogue Description (final item)  https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C13426379  It seems to be a very large file of more than one hundred folios.

[pete-c]

Much appreciated Horatio - as you say - a biggie!

[Airshipped]

Dublin-born Eugene Louis Gerrard, the 'flying marine', generated quite a few memoirs, reminiscences and semi-official reports. An excellent - but short - memoir is held in the Shuttleworth collection, but there are versions elsewhere.

Of his various attempts to provide something for the official record here's an extract from TNA AIR 1/2301/212/7 re the use of parachute bombs. It'd be interesting to identify the aircraft lost in these operations.

 

(Interesting also the mention of night flying having a scarecrow effect on enemy batteries).

[pete-c]

17 minutes ago, Airshipped said:

Dublin-born Eugene Louis Gerrard, the 'flying marine', generated quite a few memoirs, reminiscences and semi-official reports. An excellent - but short - memoir is held in the Shuttleworth collection, but there are versions elsewhere.

Of his various attempts to provide something for the official record here's an extract from TNA AIR 1/2301/212/7 re the use of parachute bombs. It'd be interesting to identify the aircraft lost in these operations.

 

(Interesting also the mention of night flying having a scarecrow effect on enemy batteries).

Airshipped: Your last sentence says it all.  It would be nice to discover the aircraft type employed on these flights.  Oliver states that the machine was one of Ark Royal's seaplanes; Short Type 166 '164' (one of Ark Royal's aircraft) was with the monitor HMS Roberts before December 1915, possibly returning to Imbros late November early December so she would have been in easy 'striking distance' of the Dardanelles.

It's doubtful 164 was the machine shot down (mentioned by Gerrard) as her history is quite well documented.  And as Gerrard intimates, these weapons were seeming employed on multiple occasions!  That leaves the 2 Wing aircraft on Imbros.   BINGO!  Just checking an old CCI Journal I find that BE2c 979 (Major Fawcett & Flt Cdr Robinson) failed to return to Imbros on 8 December.  Their flight, apparently, was to 'blow up the boom at the entrance to the Narrows' - Flt Cdr Robinson was KIA.  This 'boom' was obviously the anti submarine net.

So, it seems likely that it was the men and aircraft of 2 Wing RNAS that were chosen to deliver these 'parachute bombs'.  Now all I need to do is find the others involved in these flights!

[michaeldr]

Pete,

There are some details on the subject of the parachute bombing of the Nagara nets in this old thread; see page 2 in particular https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/124354-mystery-photograph-royal-marine-raf/page/2/ . Note that the Turkish history refers to the bombs dropped by parachute as 'demolition blocks'

regards

Michael

[pete-c]

2 hours ago, michaeldr said:

Pete,

There are some details on the subject of the parachute bombing of the Nagara nets in this old thread; see page 2 in particular https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/124354-mystery-photograph-royal-marine-raf/page/2/ . Note that the Turkish history refers to the bombs dropped by parachute as 'demolition blocks'

regards

Michael

Michael - you've come up trumps again!  Strangely my GWF search for 'parachute bombs' didn't come up with anything, mind you, I didn't try searching for Robinson, which probably would have done!  It's great to see a photo of Robinson - if, indeed, that is him.  There's certainly a likeness between the two images.

Funnily enough, I've just received a copy of Sykes' Air Revolution book but, again, the information given is somewhat sparse.  I'm hoping the TNA file will have more details on the construction of these weapons - whenever I can get to KEW! 

Strangely, even one of Robinson's service record documents states his death as occurring on the 8th of November!   

Thanks again Michael.

[pete-c]

In my Wednesday post, I was taking 'Bill' Pollard's diary entry (Cross & Cockade Vol 38/2) to mean that Fawcett & Robinson were in the same machine (BE2c 979).  However, it now seems possible that Fawcett (Major Henry Fawcett, RMLI) was in another aircraft.

Sturtivant states that Avro 504B 1042 (Major H. Fawcett & WD Jones) returned from a bombing raid on the narrows on 4.12.1915.  Another 2 Wing Avro 504B from Imbros (1040) force landed in the sea on 9.12.1915 following a recce.  Was this a flight to determine whether the bombing raids of the previous day had been successful?  These men were picked up by the monitor HMS Earl of Peterborough.  

It would also be my guess that the monitor mentioned by Sturtivant (remains returned in tow of a monitor) would probably have been one of the 'small monitors' (M.15-M19) and not one of the large ones, viz Earl of Peterborough as these had the means to lift and the room to stow an aircraft.

Edited 1 October , 2021 by pete-c

[michaeldr]

On 29/09/2021 at 16:18, pete-c said:

Would anyone have access to ADM 137/177/4, which holds details of this particular weapon?

On 29/09/2021 at 16:44, horatio2 said:

ADM 137/177/4 states: "reports by the Commanding Officer Eugene Louis Gerrard, 2nd Wing, R.N.A.S. [Imbros] on the bomb attack on the Anti-Submarine Net at Nagara carried out on 8 December 1915"

It really would be very interesting to see this file sometime - the NA's description concludes with a "memorandum with diagrams on the workings of a parachute bomb, (folio 640).”