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Most large Allied World War II aircraft bombs had very thin skins to maximise the weight of explosive which a bomber could carry. Barnes Wallis developed the Tallboy as a bunker buster. It was very aerodynamic with a tail which caused it to spin. This allowed it to break the sound barrier as it fell. It had a much thicker skin than the typical World War II bomb so that it would survive the impact of hitting a hardened surface. When dropped on compacted earth it would penetrate over 40 meters into the ground.
W. J. Lawrence wrote about the Tallboy bomb in his book, No 5 Bomber Group (1951)
It was an extraordinary weapon, an apparent contradiction in terms, since it had at one and the same time the explosive force of a large high-capacity blast bomb and the penetrating power of an armour-piercing bomb. On the ground it was capable of displacing a million cubic feet of earth and made a crater which it would have taken 5,000 tons of earth to fill. It was ballistically perfect and in consequence had a very high terminal velocity, variously estimated at 3,600 and 3,700 feet a second, which was, of course, a good deal faster than sound so that, as with the V-2 rocket, the noise of its fall would be heard after that of the explosion.
It had to be dropped from a great height which limited its accuracy and the Lancaster bomber could only carry one at a time. It was used successfully at the Eperleques blockhouse, and also against the German battleship Tirpitz.
| Length | 6.35 meter (21 feet) |
| Diameter | 0.95 meter (38 inch) |
| Weight | 5,443 kg (12,000 lb) |
| Warhead | 2,358 kg (5,200 lb) "Torpex D1" (Torpedo) explosive |
| Number used | 854 |
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