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Incendiary Bombs
The most used and easily recognised bomb of the 2nd world war has to be the German Incendiary bomb, dropped on the UK in their millions, with lots failing to ignite.
It was said to me that during the war, most school boys had the fins of these bombs on their desks and used them as pencil holders.
One of the first bombs to be mass produced and used in the Spanish civil war of 1936.
Dimensions of 1kg and 1.3 kg bombs
Oa 13.75 inches
dia 2 inches
tail length 4 3/4 inches
From top BRITISH 4LB below GERMAN 2.2KG below GERMAN 1KG and finally bottom FRENCH 1KG
The nose was replaced with steel to assist in breaking of tiles prior to igniting.
The idea was to scatter the burning magnesium over a wide area.
AZ8312 magnesium
This consisted of a normal incendiary but added to this was a explosive cylinder which acted as a deterrent for those trying to put out the bomb and of course to do as much damage as possible
Note size difference
FRENCH 1KG dropped by the Germans over the UK
But the three pieces are slotted together not welded like the German ones.
Both types of French incendiary dropped on the uk.
NOTES:
Sometime ago I was asked if a recently purchased German incendiary bomb was empty or not as the owner could not unscrew the nose fuze. After all these years a large amount of these Incendiaries wont unscrew due to the magnesium expanding with damp.

There are several ways to have a check to see if your one is possibly live.

First, when shaken, does it rattle? If it does this is usually a sign that the fuze has been removed and you have a retaining collar left inside.

Second, with a piece of flexible wire, fashion the end couple of inches into a right angle and gently insert it up inside through one of the fire holes. If there is an obstruction it still doesn't mean you have to panic, it maybe the split collar has got caught sideways inside the body.

Third, if methods one and two fail then weigh the body using suitable digital scales. These are the weights I obtained from my examples...

1 Kg standard incendiary all weights in Lbs using digital scales

Empty AZ83128* nose fuze no striker etc 1.437 Lbs

AZ8312@ nose fuze with striker etc 1.503 Lbs

Complete with empty charge case inside 1.598 lbs

1.3 Kg Steel nose fuze AZ8313 no components in fuze 2.235 Lbs

AZ8313 with components in fuze 2.303 Lbs

Remember, there maybe slight variations but only minor. Anything much heavier then caution is required.
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