Elektronbombe

ManfredT · 6 November 2009, 11:50 AM

On 7th of September 1918 the City of Paris was the target of 20.000 Elektronbomben, a systematic firestorm was planned. Before the Gothas, Friedrichshafener, AEGs and Riesenflugzeuge were airborne the raid was stopped, like that one against the City of London.

The Elektronbombe was no phantom. The Germans were able to keep it a as secret. In 1989 a German expert presented me a French drawing with the dedication:"Entdeckt bei einem Antiquar an der Seine am 28.9.1986 nach vierzigjährigem Suchen." It was a French postwar drawing.

Alex Imrie published a photograph in 'German Bombers of WWI' (1990) with the legend: "...Forty Elektron bombs are shown here in special racks under the nose of a Gotha G V, while others were visible in the vertical magazines exits."

In the meantime we have evidence by detailed German documents and photographs, but what was really known by the Entente about the Elektronbombe?

ManfredT

crankcase · 6 November 2009, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ManfredT

On 7th of September 1918 the City of Paris was the target of 20.000 Elektronbomben, a systematic firestorm was planned. Before the Gothas, Friedrichshafener, AEGs and Riesenflugzeuge were airborne the raid was stopped, like that one against the City of London....
ManfredT

Interesting... had the bomb's effectiveness been demonstrated? Who stopped the raid?
marc

bristol scout · 6 November 2009, 01:02 PM

HI marc,
It was really--apart from the 'science fiction' sounding name nothing more or less than an incendiary bomb--albeit of quite advanced design anfd performance.

Now I am in the realms of darkness as to why the raid did not go ahead----but one thing I'm sure of--it would not have been humanitarian reasons.

Dave.

ManfredT · 6 November 2009, 01:40 PM

No further input from my side.

ManfredT

Southside Bucky · 6 November 2009, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ManfredT

...what was really known by the Entente about the Elektronbombe?

Not very much apparently...This is the "How to deal with fires caused by incendiary bombs" advice given by 'The British Fire Prevention Committee' issued to the British public in 1918:

"Fires caused by incendiary bombs may be prevented from spreading, regardless of the high temperatures generated at the actual seat of the outbreak, if water be promptly applied in fair bulk, force and continuity, say from a series of buckets energetically thrown, or hand-pumps vigorously worked."

Not a good plan...Water would only fuel the flames. The only way to extinguish an Elektron bomb fire was by oxygen starvation.

Regards.

Bucky

Chock · 6 November 2009, 03:06 PM

One of the chief reasons the raid did not go ahead, was that the Germans knew they'd probably get the same thing shoved down their necks ten times over.

It was very much the policy of the

Independent Force to do that sort of thing, and many British politicians are on record as not being too fussy if bombs aimed at a barracks or a railway junction in a town centre went a bit wide and took out a row of houses instead, since that is what had been happening courtesy of the Zeppelins and Gothas over Britain, and at the time it was generally thought that such a thing would have a positive effect as far as damaging enemy morale was concerned.

When the Independent Force began raiding towns in Germany as reprisals against the German Zeppelin and Gotha raids on the UK, it was a precursor to the sort of thing that became common in WW2, but at that time the chief result of such relatively small raids was observed to be terror and complaints to the Government, so the German government, already on fairly shaky ground politically as far as the populace was concerned, were worried that heavier reprisal raids might lead to a breakdown of morale and extensive rioting etc.

Of course WW2 shows us, with things such as raids on Coventry and places like it, that in actual fact the opposite is usually true, with the people under such suffrage normally getting more pissed off with the enemy and thus throwing themselves into the war effort with greater fervour, in order to prevent such things happening again. But in 1918, that phenomenon was not really understood, as evidenced by the King showing up in Coventry after the raid by the Luftwaffe, which was largely to quell what they thought might cause a mass panic, until they learned that most civilian populations can 'take it', albeit largely because they ain't got much choice in the matter.

Al

Southside Bucky · 6 November 2009, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crankcase

Interesting... had the bomb's effectiveness been demonstrated? Who stopped the raid?
marc

After four years of development, the Greisham-Elektron company finally perfected the B-1E Elektronbrandbombe (the Elektron fire bomb) in April 1918. It's suspected, (but not proven) that the Germans may have used them in small numbers, as a test drop, during a raid on Paris on 15th June 1918.

As for who stopped the raid? That was Ludendorff, who, after the war, and for public consumption wrote:

"Because of the gravity of our position, the Supreme Command could not hope that air-raids on London and Paris would make the enemy more disposed to sue for peace. Permission was therefore refused for the use of a particularly effective incendiary bomb, expressly designed for attacks on the two capitals, which had been produced in great quantities during the month of August (1918) and which was to have been used in the air-bombardment of the two capitals. The considerable destruction which would have ensued would no longer be enough to influence the course of the war; one could not tolerate carrying out such destruction for its own sake."

Sounds very noble doesn't it? A tad disingenuous though...Germany knew the war was lost by that time (September 1918). A more realistic reason for the raid's cancellation was given by the Chancellor, Count von Hertling, who stated:

"I beg the Supreme Command not to use the new incendiaries, because of the reprisals that the enemy would take against our own cities."

Regards.

Bucky

ManfredT · 7 November 2009, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Southside Bucky

Sounds very noble doesn't it? A tad disingenuous though...Germany knew the war was lost by that time (September 1918). A more realistic reason for the raid's cancellation was given by the Chancellor, Count von Hertling, who stated:

"I beg the Supreme Command not to use the new incendiaries, because of the reprisals that the enemy would take against our own cities."

Regards.
Bucky

Bucky,

may I ask you for the source of the quoted statement by Count Hertling? Was it published in an English written book and was the German source named?

Regards,
ManfredT

Southside Bucky · 7 November 2009, 02:14 PM

Hi Manfred.

Both the above quotes are from the same source. Namely:

Mein Kriegserinnerungen 1914-1918 (My War Memoirs 1914-1918). By Erich von Ludendorff. Page 565.

Hope that helps.

Bucky

crankcase · 7 November 2009, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bristol scout

...
Now I am in the realms of darkness as to why the raid did not go ahead----but one thing I'm sure of--it would not have been humanitarian reasons.
Dave.

I agree. It seems Southside Bucky has come up with a plausible reason: fear of retaliation... there were rational calculations involved and limits to behavior set. A fanatic might have behaved otherwise.
marc