Misplaced Pages

#451548

42-526: [REDACTED] Look up firebomb in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Firebomb may refer to: Firebombing Incendiary device Molotov cocktail A season 2 episode of the television show Alias "Firebomb", a song by Chrome from their 1982 album 3rd from the Sun "Fire Bomb", a song by Rihanna from her 2009 album Rated R Topics referred to by

84-476: A cluster bomb , such as the Molotov bread basket . If a fire catches, it could spread, taking in adjacent buildings that would have been largely unaffected by a high explosive bomb. This is a more effective use of the payload that a bomber could carry. The use of incendiaries alone does not generally start uncontrollable fires where the targets are roofed with nonflammable materials such as tiles or slates. The use of

126-568: A 4,000 lb bomb (nominal weight) containing about 3,000 lb (1,400 kg) of explosive ( Amatol , RDX or Torpex ). Most general-purpose bombs , termed "medium capacity'" (MC) by the RAF, contained 50% explosive by weight, the rest being made up of the fragmentation casing. Larger Blockbusters were made later in the war, from the original 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) version, up to 12,000 lb (5,400 kg). The 4000 lb High Capacity Mark I bomb – actual weight around 3,930 lb (1,780 kg) –

168-515: A MK IV Bomb was found in a construction site in Viterbo, Italy causing an evacuation of more than 30,000 people in a range of 1400m from the discover site. Design of a 2,000 lb to meet requirements of similar size to existing 1900-lb GP bomb was by Vickers with parachute arrangements by the RAF; this was at the same time Woolwich was designing the 4000lb bomb. Actual case construction was by Great Western Railway Company. Live tests began at start of 1941;

210-710: A Member of the Order of the British Empire , for creating the Blockbuster, although his citation was worded "outstanding services to the King of a nature that cannot be revealed". The local newspaper referred to him as "Blockbuster Brooks". The first type of aircraft to carry 4,000 lb (1.8 t) bombs operationally was the Wellington during a strike on Emden in April 1941; carriage of

252-425: A few were used operationally in late 1941 with parachute dropping and delay timer. The parachute requirement was dropped and from early 1942 they were used with conventional tail. Improved Mark II and Mark III (with different fuse positions) followed in 1943. Actual weight was 1,723 lb (782 kg) for Mark II and III with 71% charge to weight filling of 60/40 or 50/50 Amatol, RDX/TNT 60/40, or Torpex 2. Filling

294-406: A larger 38 in (0.97 m) diameter, that fitted together with bolts. A 12,000 lb (5,400 kg) version was created by adding a third 4000 lb section and should not be confused with the 12,000lb Tallboy ground-penetrating "earthquake" bomb. The 4000-lb high-capacity design was little more than a cylinder full of explosives: it was un aerodynamic and did not have fins. By comparison

336-545: A mixture of bombers carrying high explosive bombs, such as the British blockbuster bombs , which blew out windows and roofs and exposed the interior of buildings to the incendiary bombs, is much more effective. Alternatively, a preliminary bombing with conventional bombs can be followed by subsequent attacks by incendiary carrying bombers. Early in World War II many British cities were firebombed. Two particularly notable raids were

378-533: A period of time lasting more than 10 hours. In contrast, the much more devastating raid on Dresden on the night of 13/14 of February 1945 by two waves of the RAF Bomber Command's main force, involved their bombs being released at 22:14, with all but one of the 254 Lancaster bombers releasing their bombs within two minutes, and the last one released at 22:22. The second wave of 529 Lancasters dropped all of their bombs between 01:21 and 01:45. This means that in

420-507: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Firebombing Although simple incendiary bombs have been used to destroy buildings since the start of gunpowder warfare, World War I saw the first use of strategic bombing from the air to damage the morale and economy of the enemy, such as the German Zeppelin air raids conducted on London . The Chinese wartime capital of Chongqing

462-566: The Coventry Blitz on 14 November 1940, and the blitz on London on the night of 29 December/30 December 1940, which was the most destructive raid on London during the war with much of the destruction caused by fires started by incendiary bombs. During the Coventry Blitz the Germans pioneered several innovations which were to influence all future strategic bomber raids during the war. These were:

SECTION 10

#1732877233452

504-697: The Goethe University in Frankfurt , requiring the evacuation of approximately 65,000 people within a radius of 1.5 km (0.93 mi). This was the largest evacuation in Germany since the Second World War. On 8 April 2018, an HC 4000 bomb was discovered during gardening jobs in Paderborn , near the local university , leading to the evacuation of 26,400 people while the bomb was defused. On 20 March 2024,

546-538: The Royal Air Force (RAF). The term blockbuster was originally a name coined by the press and referred to a bomb which had enough explosive power to destroy an entire street or large building through the effects of blast in conjunction with incendiary bombs . The bombs, then called Blockbusters, were the RAF's HC (high capacity) bombs. These bombs had especially thin casings that allowed them to contain approximately three-quarters of their weight in explosive, with

588-514: The London blitz that I watched from the roof of the Air Ministry, of setting our cities ablaze by a concentrated attack. Coventry was adequately concentrated in point of space, but all the same, there was little concentration in point of time, and nothing like the fire tornadoes of Hamburg or Dresden ever occurred in this country. But they did do us enough damage to teach us the principle of concentration,

630-580: The bomb required the bomb beam to be removed from the bomb bay and a slot cut in the bomb doors - the bomb protruded slightly through this and, on release, simply fell out through the hole. The bomb later became part of the standard bomb load of the RAF's heavy night bombers, as well as that of the Mosquitoes of the Light Night Strike Force , whose aircraft would sometimes bomb Berlin twice in one night, flown by two different crews. The 2,000-lb HC

672-618: The bomb to strengthen it. Subsequent Mark II and Mark III HC bombs differed in detail; the conical nose was replaced with a domed nose and the number of fuzes was increased from one to three to guarantee detonation . The Mark IV bomb did not have the T-section beam and the Mark V and Mark VI bombs were versions manufactured in the United States. The larger 8,000 lb (3.6 t) bomb was constructed from two 4,000 lb (1.8 t) sections, of

714-452: The evacuation of 30,000 within a radius of 2.5 km (1.6 mi). On 19 December 2016, a British bomb identified as a 4,000-lb HC "blockbuster" was discovered in Augsburg , Germany. It was defused on Christmas Day , requiring evacuation of more than 54,000 people within a radius of 1.5 km. On 29 August 2017, another British HC 4000 bomb was discovered during construction work near

756-424: The explosion's atmospheric shock wave : We were flying at 6,000 feet which was the minimum height to drop the 4,000 pounder. We dropped it in the middle of town [Koblenz], which gave the aircraft a hell of a belt, lifted it up and blew an escape hatch from out of the top. 617 Squadron developed a technique of dropping a 1,000lb MC bomb just before a 12,000lb HC bomb; the shock wave from the 1,000lb explosion fired

798-433: The first raid, on average, one Lancaster dropped a full load of bombs every half a second and in the second larger raid that involved more than one RAF bomber Group, one every three seconds. The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) officially only bombed precision targets over Europe, but for example, when 316 B-17 Flying Fortresses bombed Dresden in a follow-up raid at around noon on 14 February 1945, because of clouds

840-465: The first two hours of the raid, 226 of the attacking aircraft or 81% unloaded their bombs to overwhelm the city's fire defenses. The first to arrive dropped bombs in a large X pattern centered in Tokyo's working class district near the docks; later aircraft simply aimed near this flaming X. Approximately 15.8 square miles (4,090 ha) of the city were destroyed and 100,000 people are estimated to have died in

882-459: The incendiary bombs to fall into buildings and ignite them. As Sir Arthur Harris , commander of RAF Bomber Command , wrote after the war: In the early days of bombing our notion, like that of the Germans, was to spread an attack out over the whole night, thereby wearing down the morale of the civilian population. The result was, of course, that an efficient fire brigade could tackle a single load of incendiaries, put them out, and wait in comfort for

SECTION 20

#1732877233452

924-458: The last two years of the war. During The Blitz the Germans used naval mines dropped with parachutes as improvised blockbusters. Their fuse was triggered by the shock of landing, with the bomb exploding after a 17-second delay. As the bomb was not in a crater, the force of the blast would disperse laterally, causing extensive damage. The large raid on Coventry on 14–15 November 1940 included

966-575: The later waves bombed using H2X radar for targeting. The mix of bombs to be used on the Dresden raid was about 40% incendiaries, much closer to the RAF city-busting mix than the bomb -load usually used by the Americans in precision bombardments. This was quite a common mix when the USAAF anticipated cloudy conditions over the target. In its attacks on Japan, the USAAF abandoned its precision bombing method that

1008-430: The next to come along; they might also be able to take shelter when a few high explosives bombs were dropping. ... But it was observed that when the Germans did get an effective concentration, ... then our fire brigades had a hard time; if a rain of incendiaries is mixed with high explosives bombs there is a temptation for the fireman to keep his head down. The Germans, again and again, missed their chance, as they did during

1050-491: The night of 9/10 March, dropped 1,665 tons of incendiaries from altitudes of 5,000 to 9,000 ft (1,500 to 2,700 m), mostly using the 500-pound (230 kg) E-46 cluster bomb which released 38 M-69 oil-based incendiary bombs at an altitude of 2,500 ft (760 m). A lesser number of M-47 incendiaries was dropped: the M-47 was a 100-pound (45 kg) jelled-gasoline and white phosphorus bomb which ignited upon impact. In

1092-602: The pistols on the 12,000lb bomb to give an "air burst"; this technique was used successfully in attacks including the Michelin factory at Clermont-Ferrand in March 1944. An unusual dry period led to low river levels in the Rhine in December 2011, exposing a 4,000-lb HC bomb in the riverbed near Koblenz . A radius of 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) around the bomb site (containing about 45,000 people)

1134-522: The principle of starting so many fires at the same time that no firefighting services, however efficiently and quickly they were reinforced by the fire brigades of other towns could get them under control. The tactical innovation of the bomber stream was developed by the RAF to overwhelm the German aerial defenses of the Kammhuber Line during World War II to increase the RAF's concentration in time over

1176-488: The resulting conflagration , more than the immediate deaths of either the atomic bombings of Hiroshima or Nagasaki . After this raid, the USAAF continued with low-altitude incendiary raids against Japan's cities, destroying an average of 40% of the built-up area of 64 of the largest cities. Air-mine A blockbuster bomb or cookie was one of several of the largest conventional bombs used in World War II by

1218-534: The road — making it difficult for the fire engines to reach fires started by the successive waves of bombers. The follow-up waves dropped a combination of high explosive and incendiary bombs. There were two types of incendiary bombs: those made of magnesium and iron powders, and those made of petroleum . The high-explosive bombs and the larger air-mines were not only designed to hamper the Coventry fire brigade, they were also intended to damage roofs, making it easier for

1260-412: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Firebomb . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Firebomb&oldid=923394968 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

1302-442: The similar American "4,000 pound LC Bomb AN-M56" bomb was aerodynamically designed as other US bombs were, with a sheet metal tailfin assembly and shaped nose and aft sections. When fitted with a conical "nose piece" and a drum tail, the 1,800 kg (2 short tons) British "Blockbuster" bomb fell straight down. These bombs were designed for their blast effect, to cause damage to buildings, specifically to blow roof tiles off, so that

Firebomb - Misplaced Pages Continue

1344-466: The small 4 lb (1.8 kg) incendiary bombs could reach the building interiors. In contrast to the American AN-M56 ordnance, the cylindrical "HC"-class British-design high capacity bombs were used only by the RAF and associated Commonwealth air forces, which were the only air forces with bombers with bomb bays large enough to hold them. In 1947 Alfred Cecil Brooks of Stourbridge was appointed

1386-459: The target. But after the lessons learned during the Blitz, the tactic of dropping a high concentration of bombs over the target in the shortest time possible became standard in the RAF as it was more effective than a longer raid. For example, during the Coventry Blitz on the night of 14/15 November 1940, 515 Luftwaffe bombers, many flying more than one sortie against Coventry, delivered their bombs over

1428-427: The use of pathfinder aircraft with electronic aids to navigate, to mark the targets before the main bomber raid; and the use of high explosive bombs and air-mines coupled with thousands of incendiary bombs intended to set the city ablaze. The first wave of follow-up bombers dropped high explosive bombs, the intent of which was to knock out the utilities (the water supply, electricity network and gas mains), and to crater

1470-582: Was firebombed by the Imperial Japanese starting in early 1939 during the Second Sino-Japanese War . London, Coventry , and many other British cities were firebombed during the Blitz by Nazi Germany . Most large German cities were extensively firebombed starting in 1942, and almost all large Japanese cities were firebombed during the last six months of World War II . This technique makes use of small incendiary bombs possibly delivered by

1512-413: Was Amatol, RDX / TNT , Minol , or Torpex . In 1943, 25,000 of these were used; this rose to 38,000 in 1944. In 1945 up to the end of the war a further 25,000 were used. Actual weight 7,860 lb (3,570 kg) with charge to weight ratio of 68%. Filling was 'Amatex 9' or 'Torpex 2'. Bombs were produced from 1942 to 1945. Charge weight ratio of 80%. Filling was Amatex or Torpex. 170 were produced in

1554-419: Was a welded, cylindrical shell of 0.31 in (7.9 mm) thick steel. The body of the bomb was 30 in (76 cm) in diameter and 88 in (2.24 m) long. The nose of the bomb was conical and a 27 in (69 cm) long lightweight, empty cylindrical tail with a closed end was fitted, for a total overall length of 115 in (2.92 m). A T-section steel beam was welded to the inner surface of

1596-524: Was another high altitude daylight incendiary raid against Tokyo on 25 February when 172 B-29s destroyed around 643 acres (260 ha) of the snow-covered city, dropping 453.7 tons of mostly incendiaries with some fragmentation bombs. Changing to low-altitude night tactics to concentrate the fire damage while minimizing the effectiveness of fighter and artillery defenses, the Operation Meetinghouse raid carried out by 279 B-29s raided Tokyo again on

1638-568: Was evacuated while the bomb was defused. Another unexploded blockbuster was found in Dortmund in November 2013, requiring the evacuation of more than 20,000 people from the area. Other bombs were found and defused in Vicenza on 29 April 2001 and 25 April 2014. In 2001, defusing operations required the evacuation of 70,000 within a radius of 3 km (1.9 mi), while in 2014 defusing operations required

1680-406: Was not noted. The 4,000 lb (1.8 t) "cookie" was regarded as a particularly dangerous load to carry. Due to the airflow over the detonating pistols fitted in the nose, it would often explode even if dropped in a supposedly "safe" unarmed state. The safe height above ground for dropping the "cookie" was 6,000 ft (1,800 m); any lower and the dropping aircraft risked being damaged by

1722-696: Was used in Europe before and adopted a policy of saturation bombing , using incendiaries to burn Japanese-held cities including Wuhan , and the cities of the Japanese home islands. These tactics were used to devastating effect with many urban areas burned out. The first incendiary raid by B-29 Superfortress bombers was against Kobe on 4 February 1945, with 69 B-29s arriving over the city at an altitude of 24,500 to 27,000 ft (7,500 to 8,200 m), dropping 152 tons of incendiaries and 14 tons of fragmentation bombs to destroy about 57.4 acres (23.2 ha). The next mission

Firebomb - Misplaced Pages Continue

1764-491: Was used until the end of the war; use peaked in 1944 with over 16,000 dropped The 8,000 lb (3.6 t) and the 12,000 lb (5.4 t) could be carried only by the Avro Lancaster which needed to be slightly modified with bulged bomb-bay doors. The first use of the 8,000 lb (3.6 t) HC was by 15 Squadron Lancasters against Berlin on 2 December 1943. Bad weather and other factors meant their effectiveness

#451548