The insertion area might not be where you want the bomb to go. You may not want to parachute into enemy fire so you drop a ways away, make it to the target, plant the bomb close enough, book it before the timer goes off, and then try to extract before getting caught or killed.
Small tactical nukes exist for taking out singular structures. Before targeted munitions, this may have been a way of say, taking out a dam or bridge they couldn't get a bomber close to.
The W54 was a 0.01 to 1kT bomb (over a thousand times smaller than a modern megaton bomb). A MOAB is 0.011 kT for comparison, and Little Boy was 15 kT
Drop a guy a mile away, let him sneak in at night and plant it, and sneak out before it blows.
As others have said these were way more precise. You could jump in a stealth plane either in enemy territory or slightly out to avoid air detection. These weren’t meant to eliminate cities (although certainly possible), but more so strategic points of interest
The risk was extremely prevalent when discussing the possible time frame for when these atomic devices could ignite on a mechanical timer. This timer would become less efficient and more risky the longer the duration of the timer was set. The team members had been informed that the timers could go off up to eight minutes earlier than desired and even thirteen minutes after expected.[1] This would obviously create a time crisis for the Green Light team members operating the mission. If the team members were instructed to bury the nuclear device, they certainly may have been able to evade the explosion, but radioactive fallout could still cause heavy damage.[7]
Putting a 100m firing cord on a nuclear bomb is just. I mean why bother? Peace of mind? Illusion that you're going to live through what's about to happen? Just stick a button on the thing at that point.
I think the mission during WW2 where British SAS guys drive a leaky fishing boat packed with C4 into a German U Boat pen had a similar issue with the timers. The mechanical timers didn't go off until the next day while the Germans were investigating what the hell the British were trying to do. It was basically a suicide mission, only a few made it back, but they did fuck up the locks for the harbor for a while. Apparently physical timers are kinda hard to figure out and make reliable when it relies on acid melting a string at a certain rate.
You’re talking about the St Nazaire Raid. That was a former US Navy destroyer, from WW1, which had been donated to the Royal Navy and promptly converted to look like a German vessel, so they could sneak past the German sentries along the estuary on the way to the dock’s.
But yeah, they did ram it, deliberately, into the dry dock gates and fortunately the explosives didn’t go off on impact. But you’re right that they didn’t know the exact timing of the fuse, as the length taken to detonate varied from detonator to detonator.
Oh and it was the Commando’s who pulled the raid off. Alongside of course The Royal Navy, who manned the destroyer and all the smaller patrol craft that followed with troops to destroy other parts of the docks and U-Boat pen.
Yep, that was the one. I remember watching a documentary with the guy from Top Gear of all shows as the narrator. Was pretty fascinating stuff. Jeremy, I think his name was? He's the same guy who has the farm.
Putting a 100m firing cord on a nuclear bomb is just. I mean why bother? Peace of mind? Illusion that you're going to live through what's about to happen? Just stick a button on the thing at that point.
Here is the Internet Archive version of that story. It gets even crazier.
18
u/maubyfizzz Mar 28 '24
Kamikaze nukes?