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I have seen somewhere that Grand slam weapons were considered for use on high value targets on the Japanese mainland. If the B-29 was in fact ready even in small number for use then, would they not have value against logistical high value targets in the conflict with North Korea?

Just a thought on a slow Saturday...
 
The B-29 was trialled in WW2 with Tallboy and Grand Slam. I have copies of the test reports somewhere. But for Operation Olympic, invasion of Kyushu on Japan plans revolved around the use of the first two RAF Tiger Force squadrons with Lancasters, 617 and 9, that would have deployed to Okinawa around Sept 1945, but AFAIK the intention was only to take Tallboy.

Project Ruby in 1946 to test the effectiveness of big bombs against concrete structures saw the use of the B-29/Grand Slam combination.

By Korea the US had developed Tallboy into the guided Tarzon bomb which was used and was the biggest bomb used in Korea by all accounts.
 
Didn't B-36s had T-12s back then ? Of course they weren't deployed in Korea. T-12 was a massive monster of a bomb - later recycled in Vietnam and dropped from Sikorsky flying crane choppers to blast the jungle into submission and create UH-1 landing areas...

Could T-12 be adapted to a handful of B-50s and used in Korea ? fly the B-50s amid B-29s to mask them...
 
T-12 Cloudmaker was a 43,000lb monster. Basically an enlarged ground penetrating Grand Slam meant for the B-36. It was tested from a B-29 but AIUI that aircraft had to be stripped of just about everything and heavily modified just to get it off the ground. So a B-29 or even a B-50 with it is just not a practical combat proposition. Range with it probably being the biggest problem. They were taken out of service in the late 1950s after the B-36 also left service. No point in keeping a bomb with no aircraft to capable of dropping it.

The bomb used in Vietnam to create helicopter landing grounds was an entirely different weapon. That was the 15,000lb BLU-82 "Daisy Cutter" first used in 1970. It was a pure blast weapon with an Ammonium Nitrate filling. It was also used against the Taliban in Afghanistan in the early 2000s.

For the WW2 equivalent of the BLU-82 you need to think of the 4,000lb High Capacity Cookie or its 8,000lb and 12,000lb (not Tallboy) big brothers.
 
I am sure i've seen a reference to the range being dramatically reduced.

Edit, I think this was when attempting to carry two Tallboys, one under each wing......may have even been Grand Slams.
 
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Here are the reports about the single B-29 converted and used for tests with Tallboy between March and June 1945.

The recommendation was that a single Group (which would be 45 aircraft) should be equipped to carry Tallboy. But further work was required on the conversion to iron out problems and to make the same aircraft compatible with Grand Slam. Another aircraft had also been modified to take both bombs and was under test by the end of June 1945. And note that the operational combat radius with Tallboy a projected 1,500 miles, which wasnt too far short of an unmodified B-29 (1,600-1,800 miles). I wonder what effect carrying the Grand Slam would have?

Personal view, it would be difficult to get the aircraft conversion finalised, built, a Group selected, equipped, trained and deployed before Operation Coronet, the invasion of Honshu Japan, planned for March 1946.

In March 1946 the USAAF did deploy 3 B-29 test aircraft as part of Project Ruby to drop bombs on concrete bunkers at Farge and on Heligoland. To the RAF this was known as Operation Front Line and 15 squadron took part. Later US tests came under the title Ruby II or Harker Project.

The very first elements of the RAF Tiger Force, the Airfield Construction Service squadrons necessary to build the airfields for them, arrived at Eniwetok in the Marshall Is, under the designation "Shield Force", on 16 Aug 1945 where they sat for 4 days until new plans could be made for them. Then it was off to Manus and then Hong Kong where they arrived on 4 Sept and were put to use repairing facilities in the Colony.
 

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I have seen somewhere that Grand slam weapons were considered for use on high value targets on the Japanese mainland. If the B-29 was in fact ready even in small number for use then, would they not have value against logistical high value targets in the conflict with North Korea?

Just a thought on a slow Saturday...

The guided TARZON (VB-13) bombs were used with some effect. They were much more efficient to use, since bomb could be guided on target - not just dropped with best possible precision.
 

The guided TARZON (VB-13) bombs were used with some effect. They were much more efficient to use, since bomb could be guided on target - not just dropped with best possible precision.
Took the words out of my mouth Dilandu

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I had one of 'those' moments while reading the thread on these weapons and the B-29, I had aflash to (I think) Jimmy Cagney in the Bridges of TO-Ri. No need to get fight on the target, just close enou8ght to blast the ground out from under the bridge or viaduct etc.
 

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