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A comment on Mosul dam engineers warn it could fail at any time, killing 1M people. Parent comment

Re:Mosul dam engineers warn it could fail at any time, killi... by morty16 on Thursday March 03, 2016 @02:00PM (#11219082)
The allies (the RAF) had fairly specialized bombs in WWII to blow dams. They would fly in from upstream and drop a bomb shaped like a barrel (picture a barrel of oil) from very low altitude. The bomb would skip along the surface as it lost momentum and then sink close to the dam wall. At a certain pressure it would blow and take advantage of the hydrostatic shock to break up the wall.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Chastise

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Re:Mosul dam engineers warn it could fail at any time, killi... by arprocter on Thursday March 03, 2016 @05:46PM (#11220666)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dam_Busters_%28film%29

One of the most interesting things IMO was how they used angled lights under the planes - shone onto the surface of the reservoir to make sure they were at the correct altitude to drop the bomb (incorrect height and it wouldn't skip)

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Re:Mosul dam engineers warn it could fail at any time, killi... by tomjen3 on Thursday March 03, 2016 @04:41PM (#11220276)
They were trying to do something completely different, with different limitations than Islamic State has. They can get a few operatives up to the dam and place the explosives, but they probably don't have access to planes or the ability to build such specialized bombs.
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Re:Mosul dam engineers warn it could fail at any time, killi... by JoeAltmaier on Thursday March 03, 2016 @02:01PM (#11219095)
"Bouncing Bettys"
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Re:Mosul dam engineers warn it could fail at any time, killi... by arprocter on Thursday March 03, 2016 @05:42PM (#11220650)
That's slang for a jumping anti-personnel mine
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Re:Mosul dam engineers warn it could fail at any time, killi... by JoeAltmaier on Friday March 04, 2016 @08:43AM (#11223611)
Yes, they are also called that. I think the dam-buster bombs had the nickname first.
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