A weekend of digging 8th airforce dump 13&14/3/2010. Me and gremlins big day out!!

[Steve T]

....and by the way.....

the cap badge is a BEAUTY !!

Steve T

[381st digger]

Nice finds guys

The propeller I believe is the arming vane for a tail pistol, as shown below. It looks like the groves in the central ring of the vane would have fitted onto the large 'wing nut' in the bomb pistol. When in place, this 'wing nut' prevented the firing pin from prematurely striking the detonator. As the bomb fell, the vane would spin in the airflow, unwind the 'wing nut' and thereby allow the firing pin to be free floating. When the bomb hit the ground, there is then nothing to stop the firing pin shooting forward and striking the detonator.

Now go find another one and send it to me so I can make a nice display piece !!!!



Steve T

Nice one steve thanks for your photos.
Your pistols were great finds & quite rare i would think.

[381st digger]

Hear are a few photos of my vane after cleaning and after spending a week soaking in WD40.
Any body have any idear what size bomb it would have come off of ???
I have allso put on a photo of a small one i found years ago on a 9th airforce base.

[Steve T]

Digger

The bomb pistols this attached to (top item....not sure about the bottom one. Looks like a lawnmower blade to me , were interchangeable between the majority of bombs from 100lbers to Grand slam and the like. The detonation 'device' was basically the same in the majority of bombs. However, some of the large capacity bombs would have 2, 3 or 4 tail pistols, just to be sure, as well as a couple of nose ones to be dead certain.

Have a look here. I was terribly sad and printed the whole thing off !!

BRITISH BOMBS AND FUZES

Cheers

Steve T

[m3bobby]

If I remember back to my bombs and comps training the arming vane removed the first safety lock. I'll dig out my notes and take a look.