Barnes Wallis was the most famous inventor and designer of the Second
World War. Thanks to the film and book of The Dam Busters, he is still a
household name today. His story is not just of the ‘bouncing’ bombs that
destroyed the Möhne and Eder dams but also of the other devices he invented,
from the Wellington bomber to the Tallboy and Grand Slam
bombs that this book is about.
Wallis was one of the most prolific inventors of armaments during the
war, and his Highball, Upkeep and Tallboy bombs, as well as the truly massive
Grand Slam earthquake bombs, helped to destroy such high-profi le targets as the
Bielefeld
viaduct and led to the eventual sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz. His
bombs were only eclipsed in destructive power by the atom bombs dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
Stephen Flower’s interest in Barnes Wallis’ bombs and the men who
dropped them on Nazi-occupied Europe began when he worked at Brooklands, home of
Vickers, which built the Wellington, and where Wallis had his design
office.
