Скачать или смотреть German Pilots Mocked British Lancaster Bombers, Until They Carried 22,000 Pound Earthquake Bombs

March 1945. German pilots called the British Lancaster bomber a "clumsy box" and laughed at its slow speed and massive silhouette. Luftwaffe aces considered it an easy target until they witnessed what hung beneath its belly. The Grand Slam earthquake bomb weighed 22,000 pounds and was designed by Barnes Wallis to penetrate 30 feet underground before detonating with seismic force. When it struck the Bielefeld Viaduct on March 14, 1945, the entire structure collapsed in seconds. German engineers had built fortifications with 10-foot concrete roofs, believing them invulnerable to Allied bombing. But the Lancaster's Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs turned those bunkers into rubble, destroyed over 100 bridges and viaducts, and crippled Germany's transportation network in just months.

What you'll discover in this story:

How the Lancaster carried the heaviest bombs in World War 2 history

The Bielefeld Viaduct raid: one 22,000-pound bomb destroys 70 years of engineering

Why German U-boat pens with reinforced concrete couldn't survive earthquake bombs

The Dambusters Squadron 617's precision strikes that changed strategic bombing forever

Real statistics: 156,000 sorties, 608,000 tons dropped, and why German mockery turned to terror