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PBY-5A P18 of VP-63 flies over Gibraltar in 1944. The retro bombs are visible on the wings of the aircraft.
(Official U.S. Navy Photo)

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The Retro Bomb

The U.S. Navy develops a unique weapon to combat U-boats.
By Terry A. Gardner, EMC (SW) USN (Ret.)
June 2022
Naval History Magazine
Article
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Author’s note:  The term “retro bomb” is used throughout this article in preference to the alternate “retrorocket,” which to the modern reader might cause confusion. The later term was often used at the time this weapon was in service, as a retrorocket as we know it today had yet to exist.

On 24 February 1944, Patrol Squadron VP-63 scored their first victory against a German U-boat, marking almost two years of development and use of their unique weapon, the retro bomb. Two of their PBY Catalina aircraft drove U-761 to the surface and forced its abandonment off Gibraltar.

Weeks after the United States entered World War II, U-boats appeared off the East Coast and began wreaking havoc on merchant shipping. The U.S. Navy was looking for new solutions, as well as tried ones, to end this disaster.

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1. Roscoe Creed,  PBY: The Catalina Flying Boat (U.S. Naval Institute Press: Annapolis, 1985).

2. Norman Friedman,  U.S. Naval Weapons (Conway Maritime Press: Greenwich, UK, 1983).

3. RADM Curtiss Hutchings, USN (ret), The MAD Cats of Patrol Squadron Sixty-Three (Naval Air Museum Foundation, 1984).

4. Andreas Parsch, The Retrorocket, Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, Appendix 4: Undesignated Vehicles.

5. Conway W.Snyder, "Caltech’s Other Rocket Project: Personal Recollections," in Engineering and Science Quarterly, Spring 1991.

6. History of VP/VPB-63.

7. Location of Naval Aircraft, Op-40-A-KB(SC) A6-4/VZ, U.S. Navy official, various dates between 1942 and 1945.

8. U-326, U-392, U-731, and U-761, accessed May 2018

9. Porte-avions et Aéronavale accessed May 2018

10. U-boat Archive accessed July 2018

Terry A. Gardner, EMC (SW) USN (Ret.)

Terry A. Gardner enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1979 serving on active duty until 1985 then the reserves until 2005. An avid wargamer, particularly with miniatures, he developed an intense interest in military history. Now that retired, he would like to share some of that knowledge. As for this article, he was reading Roscoe Creed’s book PBY / The Catalina Flying Boat, and came across a brief mention of this weapon system. Having never heard of it, he decided to research it in detail.

More Stories From This Author View Biography

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