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Frag and GP bombs but who's

weberoed

Well-Known Member
Ordnance approved
Thes frag and GP bombs need a firm ID. Some have said the frag bombs are french SAMP 81s125 kg. But that bomb does not appear to use the conical fins shown. Plus these have 3 plugs going down the length of it. Not US as they have double and then single lugs. The GP bombs look like old US GPs but again no single lug. One of the pics says it is 110lb the other 440 ??2.JPG2BF70CB0-B9F6-406C-96F6-4AB51A1107D0.jpg110lb bomb.JPG440lb bomb overall closeup.JPGDSC01228.jpgFB_IMG_1641743126351.jpgDSC01229.jpg
 
It's a little difficult to understand your question as there seems that the photos got mixed while uploading.
If I understand correctly your focus is on the Frag bomb in the second line

I'll focus on the 6th picture (the bomb body in the picture before the last one in the second row)

The 3 "Plugs" is indeed a common feature on French bombs:
see for instance these 250kg 25F with tail Type 25E
250kg 25F tail Type 25E.jpg
and these 400kg with tail T-200
400kg T-200.jpg



If we are not speaking of copies US ww2-type frag bombs produced by the French with local adaptation (the 3 plugs), the bomb body in the picture discussed could well be the elusive SAMP-70 (ex MATRA-70) of 118kg overall weight including 16kg explosive, a classic fragmentation bomb with segmented body reminiscent of ww2 US frag bombs.
Whether the other, better conserved bombs, with the box-type tail, are the same bombs is indeed a possibility - low drag conical tails were introduced for high speed jets such as the French F-100 and Super-Mystere, but the Ouragans and Mysteres were sometimes seen using bombs with box-tail bombs.

I said "elusive" as I have never been able to find good pictures of this bombs - the best I got is this one - and it's of poor quality (here with a conical fin):
118kg SAMP-70 Frag (16kg explosive).jpg

I hope someone else will be able to upload better photographs and confirm the identification.


The smooth body bomb (last in the first row) could be a body of 50kg Type 61 used for training - but I am much doubt - here too photograph would be welcome.

Generally speaking the open information on MATRA bombs (before the SAMP era that took their production under this new appellation) is sadly scarce.
 
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thank you for helping with the frag bombs. I was looking at 125kg. But this give me more to look at.
The general purpose bomb, it not US so looking at bomb lugs was thinking french but I have yet to find a french GP thanks again
 
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