Bomber Command and beer bottles

[CJGibson]

There are loads of stories about Bomber Command crews dropping beer bottles as psychological weapons, howling as they drop.

Has anyone seen documentary evidence (not aircrew 'Lancaster Boys' tales) that bottles were dropped as part of bomb loads?

Also, since the howl would probably only happen when the air flowed across the open end of the bottle, would it stop once the bottle was falling in an upright orientation?

...and in the cacophany of flak, Merlins and Hercules plus bomb bursts, would the folk on the ground (and under it) hear the sound?

Discuss

Chris

 

[Scott Kenny]

There are loads of stories about Bomber Command crews dropping beer bottles as psychological weapons, howling as they drop.

Has anyone seen documentary evidence (not aircrew 'Lancaster Boys' tales) that bottles were dropped as part of bomb loads?

Also, since the howl would probably only happen when the air flowed across the open end of the bottle, would it stop once the bottle was falling in an upright orientation?

...and in the cacophany of flak, Merlins and Hercules plus bomb bursts, would the folk on the ground (and under it) hear the sound?

Discuss

Chris

Not sure about a beer bottle, but the infamous "Toilet Bomb" in Vietnam was supposed to have howled on the way down, heard over the thunder of the piston engines of the FAC and the Skyraiders.

Also, I'm not sure that a bottle would eventually stabilize, even over a 30,000ft drop.