German Butterfly Bomb

[Bob Coleman]

20+ YEARS AGO, I WAS CONDUCTING A MOTEL BUY IN MADISON, WISCONSIN. A VET CAME IN WITH HIS LOOT, WHICH INCLUDED A BUTTERFLY BOMB AND ONE OF THE MINES MADE OUT OF WOOD. THE MAN HAD BEEN A COMBAT ENGINEER WHOSE JOB IT WAS TO DEACTIVATE EXPLOSIVES. I REMEMBER WELL LOOKING HIM IN THE EYE AND SAYING "ARE THESE ITEMS DEWAT?" HE REPLIED, "YEAH, I THINK I DEACTIVATED THESE BEFORE I CAME HOME." HE IMMEDIATELY STARTING TAKING THE BUTTERFLY BOMB APART AS I SAT THERE THINKING THIS MAY BE MY LAST MINUTE . LUCKILY, HIS MEMORY WAS CORRECT. HE, THE BOMB AND I ALL SURVIVED.

[Radcollector]

"On the picture Bill posted, the thing looks huge"


i was thinking the same thing till i saw the comparison next to a lighter,that thing is small

ostmark you are a lucky man i guess!i have seen to many pics and videos of diggers (mostly in russia)finding old ordnance in bunkers/foxholes etc and just tossing it around like nothing!

[François B.]

Those are very dangerous submunitions.... A very mean baby...
When it is not deactivated....

And yes JL, they are one of the first, or even the first loaded in a cluster-bomb...


Must have been a strange sight, seeing those harmless "butterflys" coming down in the air...

Till the moment they explode, terrible.....

[pete]

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Gravel Mine.

P.S Your pic above is a Butterfly bomb UXO. Still live and armed. Even after many years, or handling by some moron, this item can still function. Report to eod and dont touch, remember to warn people who might live ontop of this thing of the hazard and not to be curious. When submunitions become UXO there are various factors such as drop height, velocity, poor design or storage etc that cause this to occur. Notice i did not get into detail more then that? Theres a reason for that!

[pete]

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[pete]

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[pete]

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[pete]

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[pete]

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Evolution has come a long way since butterfly bombs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1QvyodEwg0

[Jean-Loup]

Here is a cluster bomblet impact not far from where I live, dating from the civil wars in Yougoslavia. You can see how regular the splinter impacts are. For more pics, go here: http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=101211

[pete]

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Yes thats from a KB 1 dual purpose submunition fired from MLRS in may 95. They hit a school. They also hit the airport, center of town and a tram full of people. 5 Persons were killed the first day and 2 the second. 175 people were injured, 100 seriously. They hit a childrens hospital, the court house and the national theater the second day.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagreb_rocket_attack

Op flash prompted this action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQsrw-CD8YU ...in the video at time: 2:00 you can see MLRS (diffrent ones) in action and that is HE rockets launched a few days later on the previous senders, imagine that in downtown zagreb but each rocket opens many sub munitions which arm in the air. The function on impact and have a fragmentation sleeve to get infantry and shaped charge which penetrates armour. The area hit is roughly 150m x 300m depending on other factors. These weapons are indiscriminate and most suppliers state average submunitions have roughly a 20% failure rate. The KB1 made of chinese quality has a much larger UXO failure rate which cause casulaties later as well. In the school they were hanging from the trees and an EOD op was killed removing them.

[pete]

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See JL pics for the "Dangerous targets" they were firing on.

[pete]

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In action M87 orkan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVeTY-rQBl0

[pete]

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Launcher with included link of the probably launchees. Big tough guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfsMr6uxmZc

[pete]

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Are there any photos of a dispenser for the butterfly bomb? How were they employed and dispersed? They are in a sense the first sub munitions if they have come from a dispenser (parent).

Best,

Badger.