What's new
British Ordnance Collectors Network

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Who handled the disposal of Allied bombs in Germany during WWII?

WWIIBuff

Well-Known Member
There is a lot of information around regarding the British Bomb Disposal Units of WWII, but I have not found anything about their German counterparts. Who handled the disposal of the Allied bombs during the war in Germany?

If it was a unit of the Luftwaffe, was there a special unit?

Did they have their own bomb disposal apparatus like the Royal Engineers had?
 
Of course, there were on German side persons defused the enemy throwing ammunition. They were members of the Luftwaffe. Defusing device usually a pipe wrench.
 
Thanks Harry. So no special unit, just members of the Luftwaffe. Would it at least have been one of the armorer's?

No special equipment either, just a pipe wrench? I admit the fuzes on the allied bombs were not as complicated as those found on the German aerial bombs, but I would have thought they would have made some sort of specialty tool.
 
the german bomb disposal title is feurwerker and there are trade badges in army green and also grey.it is a stylized letter"f" on a round circle background
 

Attachments

  • P1030457.JPG
    P1030457.JPG
    197.9 KB · Views: 36
Of course they also had special tools. They used a propellant operated tool for unscrewing the No.37 for example. They also had a few mobile (milling-)machines which could remotely cut a window into the bomb casing to finally wash out the explosive with water or hot steam through this window.
 
Here are pictures from Tool boxes from german EOD with various tools to remove British and American fuses, as they were used in 1956.
 

Attachments

  • Zuschneiden_25.jpg
    Zuschneiden_25.jpg
    292.8 KB · Views: 67
  • Zuschneiden_24.jpg
    Zuschneiden_24.jpg
    101.3 KB · Views: 74
  • Zuschneiden_22.jpg
    Zuschneiden_22.jpg
    80.9 KB · Views: 77
  • Zuschneiden_23.jpg
    Zuschneiden_23.jpg
    86.5 KB · Views: 74
Great information, thanks guys. I figured they must of had some special equipment and people trained to use it. Do you guys know of any of these bomb disposal tool kits in collections or museums anywhere?

rigby those are great pictures, thanks for posting them. What is your source for those, are they from a book or a technical manual perhaps?

Thanks for the image of the book Harry, I will need to get that one.
 
the german bomb disposal title is feurwerker and there are trade badges in army green and also grey.it is a stylized letter"f" on a round circle background

Nice collection of badges there kiwieod. Am I correct to assume that those are both war-time and post-war examples?

So if I am correct, these Feuerwerker were also Artificer/Ordnance Technicians and had many other bomb related responsibilities beside just disarming enemy bombs.
 
Last edited:
So if I am correct, these Feuerwerker were also Artificer/Ordnance Technicians and had many other bomb related responsibilities beside just disarming enemy bombs.

Yes, their main competence was any ordnance work like assembly, acceptance, destruction of ammunition and weapons. For example typically a "Feuerwerks-Offizier" was leading the military acceptance department in private factorys producing anything ordnance releated. The acceptance work itself was done by civil workers, mostly women. An other typical workplace was inside ammunition arsenals where also civil workers assembled ammunition and the "Feuerwerker" was the responsible person which planned, instructed and observed the work.
 
ww11buff,i assume they are all ww2 era but would have been worn quite awhile after the war as the disposal of ordnance went on for many years after the war as we all know and even continues to this day.
 
The Germans had a good capability to render safe Allied bombs and ordnance during WWII. I have two different hand written notebooks compiled by German feurwerkers on Allied bomb fuzes. Great cutaway drawings in color of fuzes. There were some very famous men in Germany working in the field who, like the British and the Americans were learning as they were going, sometimes not with success.
 
I have a picture for you! Is from the book of Walter Merz - Fireworks Nameless heroes of the bombing nights.
 

Attachments

  • Scan_20180130 (2).jpg
    Scan_20180130 (2).jpg
    276.9 KB · Views: 34
During ww2, the "debombing" - handling and defusing of allied dropped ordnance in Germany was coordinated by the Inspecktion XIII section of the Air Ministry of the Reich, in charge of the protection of civilian and military targets and persons against aerial threats. The work was done by the EODs of the Luftwaffe's Sprengkommandos, spread all around the Reich in regional units. It was a rather efficient organization, and to some extent remained in place after the fall of Germany in 1945, to keep working, with the help of allied EOD teams (US and French mainly, the British seem to have been highly reluctant to collaboration and information sharing even with the other Allied EODs !!!). the firemen were in charge of managing the bombed areas in order to enable these EODs to work efficiently and reduce exposure of civilians to potential risks from bombs equipped with delay fuses..
 
Last edited:
Top