I went to a small militaria show this weekend and had a pleasant surprise. A friend brought a small lot of German bomb items he had acquired many years ago in a larger group of WWII German souvenirs. The 1.3Kg incendiary in the photo was not part of the group, but one I've owned since the 1970s. It was just included in the photo for reference.
The three tail fins were easy to recognize as parts of 1Kg and 1.3Kg incendiaries and I thought the two in ordnance tan color were interesting as most seem to be green like the ones on my 1937 dated bomb.
The real surprise was the Jericho whistle, an item I never expected to see on this side of the Atlantic. Larger German bombs are pretty scarce here in collections and a tail fin whistle would seem to be even scarcer. I guess there were various types including paper tubes, all steel tubes, and composite types like this example with steel body and wooden nose nailed to it.
Together with the Jericho Trumpet sirens on some Stuka dive bombers, the tubes attached to bomb fins must have added a lot of terrifying noise to the battlefield, just as the Nazi Propaganda Ministers intended.
Traffic was a bit heavy driving home but managed to find an open piece of road and couldn't resist holding it out the window at 70mph to see if it would whistle. Yes, it did howl a little but nothing dramatic. I guess we should have taken it up to 300mph for more excitement.
The three tail fins were easy to recognize as parts of 1Kg and 1.3Kg incendiaries and I thought the two in ordnance tan color were interesting as most seem to be green like the ones on my 1937 dated bomb.
The real surprise was the Jericho whistle, an item I never expected to see on this side of the Atlantic. Larger German bombs are pretty scarce here in collections and a tail fin whistle would seem to be even scarcer. I guess there were various types including paper tubes, all steel tubes, and composite types like this example with steel body and wooden nose nailed to it.
Together with the Jericho Trumpet sirens on some Stuka dive bombers, the tubes attached to bomb fins must have added a lot of terrifying noise to the battlefield, just as the Nazi Propaganda Ministers intended.
Traffic was a bit heavy driving home but managed to find an open piece of road and couldn't resist holding it out the window at 70mph to see if it would whistle. Yes, it did howl a little but nothing dramatic. I guess we should have taken it up to 300mph for more excitement.
