German UXBs, Old Sarum

[kahu1]

Image from the Royal New Zealand Air Force museum site, a stack of 'dud' bombs from Old Sarum airfield.

 

[LEI-13-HG]

There was a decoy airfield nearby at Pitton - I wonder if they were dropped on it? However, that's a lot of duds to be dropped on one airfield. I suspect there is more to this photo than the caption/image belies....

 

[tigbrand]

They may be awaiting destruction somewhere on the Salisbury plain range area. Large areas of Dartmoor were used in WW2 for training as today and Uxbs from Plymouth were taken to the area near the Warren house Inn close to Postbridge for destruction. Seems like a lot in the picture? Did the Germans suffer high rates of failure in their bombs?

 

[LEI-13-HG]

The standard figure of Luftwaffe bomb failure/UXB was 10% of all dropped.

 

[kahu1]

Hope they do a proper survey first....

Old Sarum Airfield: Appeal granted for hundreds of new homes

Planning Inspectorate gives go-ahead for 315-home development after long-running dispute.

www.bbc.com

 

[ChrisR]

Here's a photo taken of the same bombs from a file at The National Archives -