Teams to search Scottish loch for 'Dambusters' bouncing bombs

DIVERS will this summer search a Scots loch for dozens of bouncing bombs dropped in a training exercise ahead of the famous Second World War Dambusters raid.

The raid, led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, took place on 16 May 1943, when Lancaster bombers from the RAF's 617 Squadron dropped the bomb, codenamed, on the Mohne, Sorpe and Eder Dams in the Ruhr Valley.

The aim of the vital operation was to disrupt industry in a key area for the manufacture of Germany's war munitions.

But a smaller bouncing bomb designed to destroy ships was also being developed and tested in Scotland. The Highball, also invented by Sir Barnes Wallis, was designed to sink the German battleship Tirpitz, berthed in a Norwegian fjord.

Mosquitos dropped between 120 and 200 of the bombs on Loch Striven, in Argyll. They targeted a disused battleship in the loch ahead of the planned attack on the Tirpitz. The spherical bombs – measuring a metre across – were never used in war and no complete example exists in any museum for display.

But millions of people have seen them as footage of bombs skipping over Loch Striven was used in the Dambusters movie.

Footage of tests on Highball and not Upkeep was used in the film because Upkeep was always tested at sea. Loch Striven was also judged to look far more like the scene of the raid.

Dr Iain Murray, of Dundee University, has used archive films to pinpoint where the bombs were dropped and will attempt to retrieve some of the bombs in a four-day diving expedition in July.

Dr Murray, author of Bouncing Bomb Man: The Science of Sir Barnes Wallis, said: "Everyone knows about the Dambusters and the famous bouncing bomb. But a smaller version, codenamed Highball, was designed to sink the battleship Tirpitz.

"Documents show there were well over 100 dropped in tests by 618 Squadron in Loch Striven, off the Firth of Clyde on the west coast of Scotland. The bombs were similar to those dropped on the dams.

"The shots in the Dambusters film, where they press the button and the next shot is a bomb skipping across the water, is actually a Highball on Loch Striven.

"In tests on Loch Striven, the target was an old French battleship. Those bombs did not have explosives in them. They would have been the correct weight and size, but concrete filled.

Now that we have established where in Loch Striven they were dropped – in the shallower top end of the loch, at a depth of no more than 130 feet – we should be able to cover the entire area of interest in a couple of days.

"We are confident not only that the bombs are there, but that we will find them and recover some from the loch."

Dr Murray, who has studied Sir Barnes Wallis's innovations for seven years, will be aided in his search by Ted Crosby of the Archaeological Divers Association (UK).

Mr Crosby and his colleagues – funded partly by a donation from shipping line Maersk, who have container ships in the loch currently – will dive to locate the bombs on the bottom of the loch.

A team of Royal Navy Ordnance Explosives Disposal divers, based at Faslane, will then dive to establish there are no explosives, and the bombs will later be hoisted to the surface.

The plan to use Highball against the Tirpitz was overtaken by the idea to use Midget submarines. The submarines did attack the battleship towards the end of 1943, although they failed to sink it.

In 1944 there was a plan to use Highball against the Japanese and further training took place in Loch Striven, using an old British battleship as target practice, but the planned attack never took place.