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Puhis -> RE: skip bombing (12/23/2010 1:30:21 PM)
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From Axis History forum
According to Raymond Lamont-Brown's Kamikaze,page 27:
..the form of attack of skip bombing..was discussed and tried out by the Japanese[1943]..Zero fighters were fitted out with 250kg bombs which were released 200 to 300 yards away from an enemy ship.There was a great risk of damage to the fighter either from the bombs bouncing back or from an explosion on the target,but a successful training programme was carried out in the Bohol Strait,near the Cebu base,under the eye of Kimpei Teraoka,Commander of 1st Air Fleet.The programme was abandoned when the US attack on Davao on 9-10 September 1944 wiped out 50 per cent of the participating 201st Air Group..
This is exactly the same what I was thinking about. At that point Japanese abandoned skip bombing tactic when most of the planes were destroyed.
Another one from Axis History Forum:
However, at least one USN ship had been sunk by similar kind of mast height attack. It was the USS Twiggs (DD-591). Though in average the sources stated that it was torpedo attack, the detail analysis shows that it more likely was the bomb, dropped by B6N2 approaching from the bow bearing at the masthead level. Most likely, 500-kg bomb, that blew up right at the ship bow plate against forward 5-inch magazines dead below the waterline, with penetrating or not. There were no aerial torpedoes in Japanese inventory to be ready to detonate after ~70-80 yards run in the water, as this distance is detailed by the sources the drop had been.
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