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Thanks Kai,
The butterfly bomb's one of my earliest memories of an interest in the war. There was a period poster in York Castle museum showing info on the things. (If I remember right with a domed metal cover illustrated for exploding them under!) and a page on them in one of my first Warlord/Battle annuals.
Really piqued my interest at the time as I thought; 'who on earth dropped things like that in our streets?!".

I see the US made direct copies of them:
U.S. M83 Butterfly Bomb, Post WWII- Inert-Ord.Net
Now that I didn't know.

Cheers,
Adam.

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"Wars cannot be fought with dream stuff" - Sir Percy Hobart.

I remember first seeing them on tv as a boy watching Danger UXB , great program

I'd not heard of these. I wonder how often they were used.

"A Grimsby fireman told me that "they tied the whole town up for three days - everything came to a standstill." Seems to be effective at their intended purpose.

I liked the "after 30 minutes" instructions. I ain't getting near it, 30 minutes, 30 hours or 30 days.

I wonder if there is any record of use by the US.

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Best Regards,
JW

I remember them, they fell on Grimsby and Cleethorpes by the thousands, there was another town, but I can't remember which. I was twelve at the time and remember the empty desks at school. What I do remember is the reporting blackout, if the Germans had realised or found out what utter chaos had been caused, we would have had more!

Ken

Back again.

I noticed the reference to "Danger UXB". The butterfly bomb was definately not handled as shown in the series. The bombs were packed tightly into a cylindrical container which opened on leaving the aircraft. the slipstream scattered the bombs which then sprung open, the end plates forming a slight angle and turned in the airflow unscrewing the fuse rod. Ten turns energised the fuse, further movement altered the sensitivity. If the rod detached altogether, it became a contact bomb. So we got it both ways. If the safety dome for exploding them safely wasn't available, sandbags were gently (very!) stacked round the bomb with a large plug of gun - Cotton as close to the casing as possible, two sand bags on top and exit! After lighting the fuse of course!

Ken