Letter to Leonard Cheshire from Barnes Wallis
Title
Letter to Leonard Cheshire from Barnes Wallis
Description
On Vickers-Armstrong headed paper classified most secret. Congratulates Cheshire on award of bar to Distinguished Service Order. Goes on to discuss bomb plots sent to Wallis. Concludes with statement on penetration depths of the new Tallboy bomb. Includes a card for Mr H G Conway, Chief Engineer, Messier Aircraft Equipment Company.
Creator
Date
1944-04-17
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Two page typewritten letter and business card
Is Part Of
Publisher
Rights
This content is property of the Leonard Cheshire Archive which has kindly granted the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive a royalty-free permission to publish it. Please note that it was digitised by a third-party which used technical specifications that may differ from those used by International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. It has been published here ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre.
Contributor
Identifier
SCheshireGL72021v10079
Transcription
[Crest]
Vickers-Armstrongs Limited.
(AIRCRAFT SECTION)
WEYBRIDGE WORKS,
WEYBRIDGE, SURREY.
OUR REF. CA
YOUR REF. GLC/DO. 17th April 1944
Wing Commander G.L. Cheshire, D.S.O., R.A.F., R.A.F.
No. 617 Squadron,
Royal Air Force Station,
[underlined] Woodhall Spa, Lincs. [/underlined] [underlined] MOST SECRET [/underlined]
My dear Cheshire,
Firstly, very warmest congratulations from all here on the award to you of the second bar to your D.S.O. which I see announced today. You may well believe that everybody at these Works who knows what happened a year ago takes a most lively interest in the doings of 617 Squadron.
Secondly, many thanks for your letter of the 13th enclosing two further bomb plots. I will have these analysed and send you copies in a few days' time.
It is an interesting point about the first plot of 500 bombs that it does not fall in with the normal or Gaussian distribution, as on the whole your probability curve appears substantially better than would be given by theoretical standards. We shall be interested to see what sort of results the nest two plots give.
You will by this time, I hope, have heard of the great success which has attended the dropping of one inert and two live Tallboy M's.
P.T.O.
[page break]
The live stores gave depths of penetration between 60 and 80 feet in gravel, sand and clay with excellent detonation. The films show that they are perfectly stable throughout their flight, and I hope that we have therefore provided you with a new and effective weapon.
With kindest regards,
Yours very sincerely,
[underlined] B.N. Wallis. [underlined]
51:100/79 Boyle Papers
[page break]
[business card]
Mr H.G. Conway,
Chief Engineer.
Messier Aircraft Equipment Ltd.,
Warrington.
Vickers-Armstrongs Limited.
(AIRCRAFT SECTION)
WEYBRIDGE WORKS,
WEYBRIDGE, SURREY.
OUR REF. CA
YOUR REF. GLC/DO. 17th April 1944
Wing Commander G.L. Cheshire, D.S.O., R.A.F., R.A.F.
No. 617 Squadron,
Royal Air Force Station,
[underlined] Woodhall Spa, Lincs. [/underlined] [underlined] MOST SECRET [/underlined]
My dear Cheshire,
Firstly, very warmest congratulations from all here on the award to you of the second bar to your D.S.O. which I see announced today. You may well believe that everybody at these Works who knows what happened a year ago takes a most lively interest in the doings of 617 Squadron.
Secondly, many thanks for your letter of the 13th enclosing two further bomb plots. I will have these analysed and send you copies in a few days' time.
It is an interesting point about the first plot of 500 bombs that it does not fall in with the normal or Gaussian distribution, as on the whole your probability curve appears substantially better than would be given by theoretical standards. We shall be interested to see what sort of results the nest two plots give.
You will by this time, I hope, have heard of the great success which has attended the dropping of one inert and two live Tallboy M's.
P.T.O.
[page break]
The live stores gave depths of penetration between 60 and 80 feet in gravel, sand and clay with excellent detonation. The films show that they are perfectly stable throughout their flight, and I hope that we have therefore provided you with a new and effective weapon.
With kindest regards,
Yours very sincerely,
[underlined] B.N. Wallis. [underlined]
51:100/79 Boyle Papers
[page break]
[business card]
Mr H.G. Conway,
Chief Engineer.
Messier Aircraft Equipment Ltd.,
Warrington.
Collection
Citation
B N Wallis, “Letter to Leonard Cheshire from Barnes Wallis,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed May 19, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/16911.
Item Relations
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