Noted for his invention of the ‘bouncing bomb’ used to destroy German dams in WWII. Sir Barnes Wallis was honored by the Herne Bay Town Partners with a life-size, memorial statue. It was created by American Artist, Tom White. The statue is part of the Herne Bay Cultural Trail. overlooking the shores where Wallis conducted tests of his ‘bouncing bomb.’
Born in 1887 and trained as an aircraft engineer, Wallis wanted to help shorten World War II. Thus, he focused on known German stores of energy and industrial vulnerability. Three dams – the Mohne, Sorpe and Eder were attractive targets. Each embodied the expected collateral damage caused by dam breaks to mines, steel factories and other industries. However, bombs of the day would have little impact on the massive structures.
In 1942, Sir Barnes Wallis came up with idea of a bomb that would be dropped upstream of the dam. Then ricochet over the reservoir and anti-torpedo nets, and strike the dam wall. Planes dropping the specially designed 6,500-lb. bombs would need to fly about 200 feet off the water for the attacks to be successful. Testing was done near Herne Bay, Kent, England.
In May 1943, several “dam busters” were dropped on each target breaching two and seriously damaging the third. Water that was released destroyed 25 bridges, 11 factories and coal mines, and numerous pumping stations and electrical generators. Because of the success, the wartime project is depicted in the 1955 the British movie “The Dam Busters.
