Originally Posted by RobinOfLoxley:
“There was a reconstructive Documentary in Canada, including archive footage of testing where aircraft got splashback or impacts from released bombs at very low level.
One bomb even bounced up and completely removed the tail of the aircraft and it nosedived into the lake. I can only imagine the crew were killed (it wasn't mentioned)”
That was when the Americans were testing Highball / Speedee, which was a smaller version of the bouncing bomb intended as an anti-shipping weapon. On that occasion the bomb was released from an altitude of about 12 feet (or less than 10 feer according to some sources). All four crew members died.
Whether dropping from such a low height was intentional or the result of a mistake, I don't know, but I suspect it was a mistake.
Oddly enough, the technique of bouncing ordinary bombs off the water to hit ships from the side had been employed by German pilots from the start of the war. To them, the technique was known as the "Swedish Turnip".