Danger UXB - Show Us Your German Aerial Bombs, Bomb Disposal, And Related Items...

[WWIIBuff]

I was surprised to find hardly anything on the forum about the bombs dropped by Germany during WWII. I guess this thread could go in the Luftwaffe section, but it would probably be more appreciated here.

Show us what you have in your collections. Hopefully some of you guys in Europe and the UK have a few large bomb casings in your collections. Let's see those SC-50's, SC-250's, ETC.

I'll start things off with a couple of my 1kg B1E incendiary bombs. Made of magnesium alloy, with an incendiary filling of Thermite, these were dropped on London by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. They we usually dropped after the HE bombs had already been dropped by earlier raids, creating piles of building rubble that was ripe for burning.

[WWIIBuff]

More of a political item, but related to the 1kg B1E, this is one of my favorite WWII posters. It was created by the British War Department to help build morale.

[WWIIBuff]

With millions of B1E's being dropped, the National Fire Service, Air Raid Wardens, and other departments on the British Home Front were kept busy trying to put them out. Burning magnesium is hard to extinguish, so pouring sand on them was the typical remedy. Sometimes you had to scoop up the B1E and move it. This scoop and hoe were designed for just that purpose.

[WWIIBuff]

The SD1 Splitterbombe was the smallest aerial bomb in the Luftwaffe arsenal. This bomblet started life as a mortar round, but was later re-purposed as an anti-personnel cluster bomb. Some were dropped in the UK, but they were mostly used on the Eastern Front.

These are only about 6 1/2 inches long (16.51cm).

[WWIIBuff]

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[klarkon]

SC-10 cutaway. Found at the former luftwaffe airport Klecany near Prague.

[WWIIBuff]

Very nice example klarkon, especially with it being a cutaway. Thanks for posting it.

If I am correct, this is the next size up of Luftwaffe aerial bombs from the SD1 I posted before it.

[Grossfuss]

Danger UXB

Hi,

I no longer have them, but back around 1970 I owned two bomb casings that came from a Council yard on the outskirts of Winchester, Hampshire.

I'd been looking at these since childhood from a public footpath that ran alongside the yard leading to the nearby College boating river.

In later years these were visible from the adjacent Winchester By-Pass before the route changed.

One day, on my way to work, to my horror they had disappeared. I later visited the yard and found they'd been dumped in a corner. Naturally, I asked if they were wanted and, shortly after, I continued my after-lunch journey to work in our old Austin A35 with a 50Kg SD in the boot (trunk) and a 250Kg SD on the floor.
There was also the nose cone off an even larger bomb, but that was too big to handle!

A late pal of mine later had the 50Kg and found a super set of matching alloy fins in an antique shop in Bristol.

The 250Kg is now in the Guernsey Occupation Museum, taken there in a VW Beetle, but that's another story!

Looking forward to seeing some more pics.

Regards,

Grossfuss

[whsammler]

Here is my contribution to the thread.

First is a nice 1937 dated SC10

Second a nice 1938 dated incendiary.

& last but not least an SD2 butterfly bomb.

ALL INERT OF COURSE. [emoji848]

[WWIIBuff]

Very nice whsammler, thanks for posting.

Here is a sign to go with your SD2 "Butterfly" Bomb.

[whsammler]

Thanks WWIIBuff. It’s a labour of love. Getting harder to dig up juicy stuff here in Canada.....but I keep trying.


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[WWIIBuff]

I know there must be more aerial bombs and related items out there, so please post them.

Here are a couple more of the smaller bombs, the Sprengbombe Dickwandig 2 kg or (SD2) SD-2 "butterfly" bomb.

First is my complete example in extremely good condition. This fine example was brought home to the US by a veteran, and it is completely foldable and stripable. It has the most common of the five different types of fuzes used in the SD-2, the Z.(41)A, which could be set for airburst or impact detonation.

[WWIIBuff]

Here is a view of the Z.(41)A fuze, including the bakelite gaine that threads into the bottom and covers the kl.Zdlg.34 detonator charge.

[WWIIBuff]

This is another complete example I have, but it has some issues with corrosion, especially on the springs, thus causing one wing to stay open too much.

[WWIIBuff]

The SD-2 above has the rarest of the fuzes in it, the Z.(70)B, which was a mechanical "anti-handling" fuze. Since the slightest touch would set it off, surviving examples of the fuze are harder to find.