The Grand Slam Bomb Trivia Quiz

Answer: Barnes Wallis

Sir Barnes Wallis was born in Derbyshire, England in 1887. He would go on to become one of the most important British scientists, specifically in the field of engineering, throughout the inter-war years and during World War II. Despite being better known for the bouncing bomb, Barnes Wallis is remembered by many for another group of bombs that he developed which included the Tallboy bomb and the Grand Slam, the latter being made to a larger scale than the former.

Answer: Earthquake bomb

The earthquake bombs are also remembered by another name, the seismic bombs, and the two most well-known examples of this bomb classification are the Tallboy and the Grand Slam. The bomb was not designed to kill civilians in built-up areas but instead was used to disrupt the infrastructure of the opposition.

Perhaps one of the most memorably successful uses of the earthquake bomb was when the German battleship, Tirpitz, was sunk by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) in November, 1944. The bombs used on this occasion were Tallboys, it was only in 1945 that widespread use of the Grand Slam was seen.

Answer: Ruhr

The Ruhr has always been seen as a pawn in a European military game of chess. The occupation of the Ruhr in late 1922 through early 1923 by France and Belgium is well remembered for a policy of "passive resistance" utilised by the residents of the area.

The military of France and that of Belgium occupied the Ruhr in response to Germany's failure to pay reparations, a fee if you like for the "guilt" of Germany in WWI. The reparations were to be paid as stipulated by the Treaty of Versailles which in retrospect has clauses which seem excessively harsh to Germany.

Many modern historians believe that countries other than Germany that were involved in WWI were far from blameless.

Answer: Sheffield

Whenever steel (stainless steel cutlery in particular) is mentioned in the UK, Sheffield usually comes to mind such is the extent of the steel industry in the city. What is fascinating about this company is that it started off making a campanologist's best friend, the church bell, and by the time of the Second World War Vickers were manufacturing bombs such as the Grand Slam.

Answer: Thick casing

One of the main features of the Grand Slam bomb was that it had a thicker casing than conventional bombs and an even thicker casing than its predecessor, the Tallboy. Added to this thick was a molten explosive and this addition took approximately one month to set! This could be one of the reasons put forward to explain the relatively small number of Grand Slam bombs produced.

Answer: Gyroscope

Clearly a very important factor to take into consideration with bombs is whether or not they will hit their intended target. Many calculations will be made by engineers and physicists to come up with an optimum design to ensure accuracy. In the modern day computers play an important part in the motion of ballistic missiles and indeed there is an entire field of science devoted to this, ballistics!

The gyroscope is another mechanical construct that aims to maintain (or sometimes measure) orientation. The physics behind it is mainly the phenomenon of angular momentum which takes into account angular velocity and the inertia of the moving body. Inertia is the propensity of a body to resist a change in motion.

Answer: Torpex

Torpex is classified as a secondary explosive which means it is slightly less sensitive to stimuli, such as friction, than primary explosives. If you had equal masses of TNT and Torpex, the latter proves to be roughly 50% more powerful than the former! In fact, a major constituent of Torpex is TNT but there are other additions such as aluminium in powdered form. The name of the now obsolete Torpex comes from the phrase 'TORPedo EXplosive'.

The other three options are all synthetic fibres that are used in a variety of useful ways.

Answer: Viaduct

The first Grand Slam bomb to be dropped was by C.C. Calder, flight squadron of the No. 617 Squadron RAF over Bielefeld, Germany. This particular squadron, based in Scotland, gained the nickname "Dambusters" due to their work in WWII which involved bombing viaducts and dams.

Many of the dams destroyed by this squadron were with the use of the bouncing bomb but many of the viaducts and other such infrastructure was destroyed using the Grand Slam.

Answer: Speed of sound in air

You can therefore imagine that a bomb heading for the ground at the speed of sound (Mach 1) is going to cause quite a disturbance. This was what the bomb was fundamentally about, approaching land at high speeds and causing a mini-earthquake in the locality. This was meant to disrupt infrastructure without causing civilian harm.

The speed of sound varies depending on the medium of propagation. Sound actually travels a lot faster in solids than in air, particularly metals such as iron, and about three times faster in liquids than air.

Answer: Harry S Truman

This is a very interesting quote from President Truman as it shows the Grand Slam bomb in its historical perspective. For the Grand Slam to be used in the quantification of an explosion as massive as that of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima means the British bomb was well known at the time.

As the bombs have become more and more powerful over the years and with the threat of nuclear warheads on the minds of today's population, the Grand Slam bomb has become an interest of the military historian rather than the population at large; a slightly antiquated piece of engineering that would prove ineffective in the technological world.