Interesting Ponderance.......maybe!

[ozzy72]

This may go down in Forum history as one of the most ridiculous, useless ponderances ever posted, but it really has me thinking.
And, you never know, maybe there is an answer!

During WWII, with all those fighters and bombers shooting literally millions and millions of various calibre MG and canon rounds at each other, especially over heavily populated areas of the major British and German cities, are there any reports, or at least, a batch of incidents where people or cars or whatever, have been hit by these 'wayward' projectiles.

OK, maybe after loosing the initial 'clout' from the load behind them, they would just be falling at 'terminal velocity'. But then, what is the 'terminal velocity' for lead or steel jacketed lead etc?
They would definitely be capable of causing some nasty injuries at whatever speed they fall.

Surely, considering the literal billions involved, some must have hit someone or something.

[RIC_BARKER]

I once heard that an average coin dropped from a tall building will hit the ground with enough force to smash paving stones...I can only imagine what aerodynamically shaped round would do!

I suppose if depends if the bullet looses it's spin in the air, as once they do this, they are not gyroscopically stabilised and start to tumble, making them low down drastically.

If anyone can find the drag coefficient of a bullet, I could work it out, if you give me the height at which the bullet was fired.

I suppose one way to think of this is in terms of an artillery shell. They are fired upwards to follow a ballistic path, and you can see the holes they make!

Ric B.

[Smoke2much]

Interesting thought Brensec.  My dad was 8 years old during the Battle of Britain and remembers being at school during Air raids etc.  They used to have to leave class and go to some sort of shelter.  He has told me that they used to collect the shell casings after the event and remembers them "raining down" on the play ground one day whilst they were walking across it.  He has never mentioned anyone getting hit by a casing or spent bullet but I suppose it must have happened somewhere.

Will

[ozzy72]

My grandmother always told me the funny one of living through the Blitz, and one day she was at home and could hear some planes screaming around overhead, so close she got disturbed by the noise and dropped a cup. She bent down to get it and the windows exploded inwards (the table protecting her from the glass), and there was a neat line of bullet holes in the kitchen wall opposite the window.
She said it was probably an RAF plane that did it
But yeah this isn't an uncommon problem, even casings landing on your head can kill you.

[Professor Brensec]

I imagine Ozzy's account would be a more rare occurence, but still, in dogfights within a few hundred yards of the ground, I can't see a fighter pilot (British or German or American for that matter) holding his fire at the perfect moment, because there is a house or building in the background.

To be honest, I didn't even think of the casings, of which there would be even more 'crashing' to earth than rounds. They, being brass (lighter than lead) and less than aerodynamic in shape, would probably have been less dangerous, but as said, still could kill.

Can you imagine the number of brass casings scattered all over Europe, Nth Africa, the Atlantic, the Pacific and Islands? It boggles the mind!

Maybe not such a ridiculous ponderance after all!!  ;D

(I just sit and these things, for some reason, come to mind - beats the crap out of me).  ;D

[Craig.]

me and a friend found an absolute gold mine of bullets, we were diging in the back yard and about 5 foot down we found hundreds of bullets and cases(this was in middle wallop which was a major base for operations) i am guessing the way they were spread out would have ment they were def fired from above no idea by who though

[Professor Brensec]

me and a friend found an absolute gold mine of bullets, we were diging in the back yard and about 5 foot down we found hundreds of bullets and cases(this was in middle wallop which was a major base for operations) i am guessing the way they were spread out would have ment they were def fired from above no idea by who though

A bit strange that the bullets and casings would be in the same place, though?
The guns would have to have been fired exactly 'perpendicular' to the ground for both to fall or land in the same spot. And even then the bullets would have 'burrowed' into the ground and the shells would have bounced on the surface.

[Craig.]

the casings were spread out over the place. we found a stock pile of the things in his back yard which was about 50 feet from mine, i dont know if they had been collected by who ever was around at the time and buried or what.

[Tequila Sunrise]

I've only ever heard of one person getting killed by falling amunition but my great aunt was hit in her left leg.
The guy that was killed was on an airfield at the time so it might not have been an accident.

[Ronnie]

me and a friend found an absolute gold mine of bullets, we were diging in the back yard and about 5 foot down we found hundreds of bullets and cases(this was in middle wallop which was a major base for operations) i am guessing the way they were spread out would have ment they were def fired from above no idea by who though

Maybe they had a plane sitting there with a target in front of it and they were aligning the guns for accuracy. And maybe, just to be sure it was correct, they moved the plane a bit closer after each time they had an accurate shot. That would explain them being scattered about.

[Craig.]

possibly:) i have not seen pics of how wallop was setup during ww2 so it is posible

[Woodlouse2002]

My friend has a nice 20mm cannon shell with 1942 stamped on the bottom. It is very scratched so the cannon was not well oiled.

God knows how many were killed by bullets falling to the ground. No doubt any that were were put down to being killed by strafing attacks.

[visitor]

Brensec;

When I bought my home I had a new roof put on,
about 3 months later had a leak in the living room,
called the roofer, we found a 223 caliber round stuck
in the roof, rural area lot of hunters, It only penatrated
about 1/4" came in almost straight down and just
got through the shingles and tar paper, didn't even
dent the wood!!
This may shed some lite on this matter!!!

X
Brad    

[Fozzer]

[quote]Interesting thought Brensec.

[Oso]

And I thought I was old Fozzer!

Hey!

Do you remember Zeppelins bombing London?