40 pound incendiary bombs

[Waldemar Kurtz 1]

"These bombs may be used against kite balloons. they can be burst at any desired height below an aeroplane, and when burst spread out a shower of burning phosphorus over a circle of about 250 yards diameter. consequently, a balloon will be hit if it is not more than 125 yards from the center of the burning particles. ..."

 

"the lumps of phosphorus slowly burn out while falling, and about half burn out while falling the first 2,000 feet from the burst. consequently, bombs should be timed to burst about 700 ft above the target, and any bomb which is burst more than 3,000 ft above the target is practically useless"

 

"when attacking an object of known height, all bombs are set to the same fuse timing. since each covers a circle of 250 yards diameter, it is useless to release two at the same moment, and since the aeroplane will travel about 40 to 50 yards per second, an interval of about 4 seconds should be made between the release of successive bombs. if this is done with four bombs, an area of about 250 x 800 yards will be covered, and thus considerable errors in range can be made without missing the target."

 

I just got "Details of Aerial Bombs" a reprint of the Air Ministry's 1918 publication from the Imperial War Museum as printed through the Naval and Military Press. (ISBN 184574278).

 

it's got all sorts of things from how to assemble the bombs properly, how the bomb racks work. even going into detail about Very cartridges, flare launchers... high explosive, incendiary, and leaflet boms-- pretty much anything and everything connected to bombs and flares in the RAF gets covered. a fun, fun book.

Edited July 27, 2009 by Waldemar Kurtz

[Check Six 2]

"These bombs may be used against kite balloons. they can be burst at any desired height below an aeroplane, and when burst spread out a shower of burning phosphorus over a circle of about 250 yards diameter. consequently, a balloon will be hit if it is not more than 125 yards from the center of the burning particles. ..."

 

"the lumps of phosphorus slowly burn out while falling, and about half burn out while falling the first 2,000 feet from the burst. consequently, bombs should be timed to burst about 700 ft above the target, and any bomb which is burst more than 3,000 ft above the target is practically useless"

 

"when attacking an object of known height, all bombs are set to the same fuse timing. since each covers a circle of 250 yards diameter, it is useless to release two at the same moment, and since the aeroplane will travel about 40 to 50 yards per second, an interval of about 4 seconds should be made between the release of successive bombs. if this is done with four bombs, an area of about 250 x 800 yards will be covered, and thus considerable errors in range can be made without missing the target."

 

I just got "Details of Aerial Bombs" a reprint of the Air Ministry's 1918 publication from the Imperial War Museum as printed through the Naval and Military Press. (ISBN 184574278).

 

it's got all sorts of things from how to assemble the bombs properly, how the bomb racks work. even going into detail about Very cartridges, flare launchers... high explosive, incendiary, and leaflet boms-- pretty much anything and everything connected to bombs and flares in the RAF gets covered. a fun, fun book.

 

Absolutely the perfect counter to heat seeking missiles. That would confuse the hell out of them.