German Explosive Ordnance - Containers (Part 4)

German Explosives

BSB 360 Incendiary Bomb Container

No picture available

Overall Length: 7 feet 9 inches

Body Length: 1 foot 8 inches

Wall Thickness: 0.06 inches

Filling: 320 1 kg 1B's

Total Weight: 435 kilograms

Colour and Markings: Black overall

Construction: The BSB 360 is a sheet steel cylinder with a blunt nose and tapered tail section.  The cylinder is divided into four compartments, each containing eight bombs.  The two doors of the container are opening manually by a cable, each door opening two compartments and releasing bombs in groups of 180.  This container generally remains in the aircraft after dropping the load.


Suspension: Horizontal. Container retained in plane.






BSB 700 Incendiary Bomb Container

No picture available

BSB 700

Overall Length: 10 feet 3 inches

Body Length: 2 feet 2 inches

Wall Thickness: 0.06 inches

Filling: 702 1 kg 1B's

Total Weight: 900 kilograms

Colour and Markings: Black overall.

Stenciled on body:

Betadezant 700-5

Leengewicht 205 kg

Gesamtgewicht 900 kg

Construction: The BSB 700 is a sheet steel cylinder with a blunt nose and conical tail section.  The cylinder has six compartments, each containing 117 bombs.  The contents of each compartment are released by means of trap doors operated from an axial spindle, the release mechanism being controlled electrically through a solenoid.  Bombs are released in batches of 69 and 48 from each compartment.  Each compartment has an expendable outer door and inner rotating door (rotated by action of the solenoid).  This container remains in the aircraft after dropping the load.

Suspension: Horizontal. Container retained in plane.






BSB 1000 Incendiary Bomb Container

Overall Length: 8 feet 11 inches

Body Length: 2 feet 2 inches

Wall Thickness: 0.09 inches

Filling: 570 1 kg 1B's

Colour and Markings: Light khaki or grey overall.  "Leerewicht 210 kg" is stenciled on the body.

Construction: The BSB 1000 has a sheet steel cylindrical body.  The blunt nose and conical tail sections are attached by bolts and rivets.  The nose and tail sections are recessed to take a transport loading bar.  The main body is internally divided along its longitudinal axis by a hollow central bulkhead which houses the release rods.  Each half of the main body is further divided into 5 compartments by bulkheads, thus making 10 compartments.  Ten spring loaded compartment doors are hinged to the underside of the container.  These doors are held by hook releases which are connected by the release rod to the electrical release units fitted with manually operated release switches for use in loading.  No fuze is fitted and it is assumed that the electrical lead passes into the junction box and selection mechanism housed in the tail, the latter functions to space the 570 bombs as desired.

In operation, the electrical charge passes through the junction box and causes the selector mechanism to function.  Current is passed to release units, and these open the release hooks through the medium of the release rod.  The weight of the bomb forces doors open and bombs fall, the spring loaded doors then closing the preserve streamlined containers.  This container also remains in the aircraft after dropping the load.


Suspension: Horizontal. Container retained in plane.






AB 500-1 Container

Overall Length: 80 inches

Body Diameter: 18 and 7/8 inches
Wall Thickness: 1/8 inches
Tail Length: 28.75 inches
Tail Width: 24 and 3/8 inches

Filling:
-37 SD 10A; or
-392 SD 1; or
-184 1-kg incendiary; or
-28 SD 10 FRZ; or
-116 2-kg incendiary.


Color: Light khaki overall

According to contents, the following stenciling is found on the body:

AB 500-1
Fur 184 B1.3EZ
Fur 116B ZEZ
89B
69E

AB 500-1
37 SD 10A
Gew 47 kg
69E
89B

DB 500-1
392 SD 1
Gew 415 kg
89B
69D

Construction: The container is divided along its longitudinal axis into two halves hinged at the tail.  The nose compartment contains the fuze assembly, the central compartment accommodates the bombs, and the tail compartment being empty, forms part of the tail structure.  A metal strip is welded to one-half the container and forms a spigot for the two halves to close on.  A pressed metal plate having a central channel runs the length of the central compartment.

The internal structure varies as to bombs carried.  When SD 10 FRZ bombs are carried, they are loosely packed.  Fifteen bombs are carried in the rear of the central compartment and thirteen forward.  They are not secured by bands.  Containers for SD 10A bombs are divided internally into two compartments.  The central compartment of the container is divided into two halves by a plywood sheet.  Eighteen bombs are accommodated in the forward half and nineteen bombs in the rear half.  Each cluster is secured by steel bands which clip into the channel on one side and are wedged in by the wood strip.  On the other side the bands are secured together by split pins which pass through loops at the ends.  Metal strips looped around the steel bands split the pins.  Wooden packing blocks are recessed to receive the bands.  In the forward compartment the cluster of bombs is divided by slats of wood and the suspension strut.

The sheet metal tail fins of each half are braced by a bar welded between them.  The charging head Ladekopf MVOV 500-1 is housed in a steel block welded to the container wall about midway down.  A four-core electric cable from the charging head to the nose is carried in a metal tube welded to the inner wall.  The cable enters the nose compartment through a hole drilled in the forward bulkhead.  The fuze pocket is located in the nose by two brackets and welded to the forward bulkhead and sides of the container.  The lower end of the pocket receives the anvil retained by the shear wire.  A tubular extension to the anvil is arranged to receive the bolt, which secures the closed container after assembly.  Welded to the side of the fuze pocket is a short length of tube which contains the Z 69E fuze; the bayonet fitting three pin plug closes this tube and connects the fuze with the charging head.  A Zt (89) B fuze is held in the fuze pocket by usual locking and locating rings and is connected to the charging head by a charging attachment.  Access to the fuze assembly is gained by a hole cut in the wall of the nose, and closed by a cap having a bayonet fitting.



Operation: On release from the aircraft, an electrical charge is transmitted via the charging head to either or both fuze.  After a predetermined delay, depending on the fuze selected, the fuze operates to detonate the bursting charge.  This overcomes the shear wire and forces the anvil from the fuze pocket.  The two halves of the container swing back on the hinge and the contents spill out.


Suspension: Horizontal.


Remarks: In containers filled with SD 1's, the 69D has been painted out and a wooden plug replaces the 69D fuze.






AB 500-3A Cluster Adapter

Overall Length: 31 and 1/4 inches

Body Diameter: 16 and 1/2 inches by 17 and 3/4 inches

Filling:

-4 SD 50 kg; or

-4 SK 70 kg; or

-50 kg and 100 kg French bombs.

Color and Markings: Khaki overall.  Stenciled in black on body: AB 500-3A.



Construction: The cluster is built around two longitudinal channel plates 1/8 inch thick.  They are pressed into splayed U-shaped channels at the top and the bottom of the assembly respectively and joined together by two steel plates which form a central longitudinal bulkhead with a double wall.  Triangular plates welded between the bulkheads and the outer ends of the upper channel act as stiffeners.

At about the middle two plates, forming the bulkhead, are then shaped to form a rectangular compartment.  It is presumed that when German bombs are carried this compartment contains a junction box and charging attachment for the Rheinmetall fuzes mounted in the bombs.  Holes are punched in each side of the compartment and are shaped to take fuze head attachments.  A hole is drilled in the top main supporting plate to enable a connecting cable to be threaded through the bulkhead.

At each end of the top channel a pair of shaped steel crutch pads are pivoted on either side of the plate.  They are to fold over the top bombs and act as pressure plates for steadying brackets in the aircraft bomb rack.

Wood packing, shaped like saddle pieces for the bombs, are clipped to the sides of the central bulkhead.  Two wide thin sheet steel carrying bands are hinged to the top channel and locked into the bottom channel by the release mechanism.  Each band is in two halves coupled by an adjustable right and left handed screw which functions as a turnbuckle.  Suspended from the nose of the top channel is a rigid structure of steel strip in the form of two inverted Y's.  This is presumed to carry a locking device for mechanically armed nose fuzes, mounted in French bombs.

The container has an electropyrotechnic fuze of the 69 series.  A Ladekopf charging head is mounted on a steel pressing, welded within the top channel towards the rear end.  An electric cable passes from this, through the central bulkhead to the 69 fuze which is mounted on the side of the release mechanism, within the bottom channel.  A second cable may be connected to a junction box within the rectangular compartment, when the container is loaded with German bombs.

A rectangular pressed steel box is secured to the end of the suspension bar, within the bottom channel, by a nut.  Steel box angles slotted to engage round the bar, and which are riveted to the loops, slide into one another and beneath the steel box.  The loops are hinged to the bottom of the carrying bands.  Steel wedges are riveted to the reverse sides of the loops to keep the assemble wedged within the channel.  Small steel triangular boxes are welded tot he bottom of the carrying bands to facilitate release.  The assembly is locked while there is upward tension on the suspension bar.

On either side of the assembly, two brackets are welded within the channel.  A third bracket supports the fuze pocket.  A steel pin, attached to the remote end of the fuze pocket is threaded through holes drilled on the bracket and locks the suspension bar and assembly in the "up" position should tension on the bar be released.  When the container is released from the aircraft, an electric current is pressed via the charging head to the 69 fuze.  After a set delay the fuze fires, forcing off the remote end of the fuze pocket, which carries the locking pin with it.  The tension on the carrying bands then forces the suspension bar down and the locking assembly is released.

When German bombs are carried, a second circuit from the charging head passes the electric current, via a junction box, in the central rectangular compartment, to the Rheinmetall fuzes in the bomb.

Next Time: Containers (Part 5)

Source: German Explosive Ordnance Vol. 1: Bombs, Rockets, Grenades, Mines, Fuzes & Igniters