Sky dancer
New Member
Gentlemen,
Thanks for letting me join your forum, I hope you will excuse any newbie mistakes!
I'm researching a few things for a project of mine involving the 118th Tactical Reconnaisance Squadron of the 23rd Fighter Group, USAAF, which served in the China/Burma/India theatre in WW2.
They were initially equipped with P-40 fighters, but re-equipped with the legendary P-51 Mustang. One of their raids is depicted in the film "Empire of the Sun".
The 118th TRS used a drop tank made locally in India by the Hindustani Aircraft Factory, these were non-standard for the P-51, and when U.S. issue drop tanks became more readily available the Indian-made tanks were converted to carry napalm. Here's a photo of one about to be fitted to a P-51:
This photo was sent to be from a contact in the U.S. as a jpeg, I recently got a copy as a TIF file, which showed much better detail. The napalm tank has a normal filler cap fitted, so a M16 WP igniter is not fitted, but there is very clearly a bracket fitted to the side of the tank.
I suspect that this was for a M15 type WP igniter, but I'm not sure if the arming vanes would have sufficent clearance from the tank side, or get enough airflow.
A bit more research provided this shot of a 55 gal. oil drum modified by a B-24 bomber squadron in the CBI threatre as a napalm bomb:
My question is this - what type of WP igniter is shown in the second photo? Could it fit the bracket of the P-51 napalm tank?
It doesn't have the vanes of the M15, I have heard that it may be a M13 or M14, but I can find very scant details of these and cannot find pictures of these igniters in their entirety.
Can anyone help?
Also, does anyone have a copy of a WW2 dated TM 3-400 cluster/chemical bombs tech. manual?
Any info. would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Michael
Thanks for letting me join your forum, I hope you will excuse any newbie mistakes!
I'm researching a few things for a project of mine involving the 118th Tactical Reconnaisance Squadron of the 23rd Fighter Group, USAAF, which served in the China/Burma/India theatre in WW2.
They were initially equipped with P-40 fighters, but re-equipped with the legendary P-51 Mustang. One of their raids is depicted in the film "Empire of the Sun".
The 118th TRS used a drop tank made locally in India by the Hindustani Aircraft Factory, these were non-standard for the P-51, and when U.S. issue drop tanks became more readily available the Indian-made tanks were converted to carry napalm. Here's a photo of one about to be fitted to a P-51:
This photo was sent to be from a contact in the U.S. as a jpeg, I recently got a copy as a TIF file, which showed much better detail. The napalm tank has a normal filler cap fitted, so a M16 WP igniter is not fitted, but there is very clearly a bracket fitted to the side of the tank.
I suspect that this was for a M15 type WP igniter, but I'm not sure if the arming vanes would have sufficent clearance from the tank side, or get enough airflow.
A bit more research provided this shot of a 55 gal. oil drum modified by a B-24 bomber squadron in the CBI threatre as a napalm bomb:
My question is this - what type of WP igniter is shown in the second photo? Could it fit the bracket of the P-51 napalm tank?
It doesn't have the vanes of the M15, I have heard that it may be a M13 or M14, but I can find very scant details of these and cannot find pictures of these igniters in their entirety.
Can anyone help?
Also, does anyone have a copy of a WW2 dated TM 3-400 cluster/chemical bombs tech. manual?
Any info. would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Michael
