The slamming force occurring in the free fall impact of cylindrical bodies on the water surface is analyzed in both compressible and incompressible stages. In the compressible phase the hydrodynamic analysis is carried on by the acoustic approximation, obtaining a closed form expression for the maximum impact force. The incompressible analysis is approached through and unsteady boundary element method to compute the free surface evolution and the slamming force on the body. A similar behavior seems to characterize the maximum slamming force versus a dimensionless mass parameter.