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British WW2 special charges

Bellifortis

Well-Known Member
Hallo,
In the german "Merkblatt 45/21 about british Blasting-and Ignition devices, Mines and Fuzes" dt.1.8.1942, there are described some special, non-standard charges, that I did not find in any british publication, even not in Mark Seamans SOE catalog. The people who used these, were trained in their use, so there must be some british training manual. Attached are 2 photos of 3 of these charges. Any idea ?
Greetings,
Bellifortis.Geballte u. ggestreckte Haftladungen British.jpgRing-Haftladung British.jpg
 
Hi Tim,
I just read the australian report again, of the link you gave. The report describes the "Wreath Charge" as a "W" folded linear shaped charges which could be folded open to a square. This is similar to the newer russian construction. Also the use of both charges is the same, one blows a square, the other a round hole. If the name "Wreath Charge" developed from the "W" the charge was folded in, then the round shape couldn't be called a wreath charge. Thanks for your input.
Bellifortis.
Bellifortis,

The third is a "Wreath" charge - http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/threads/98173-British-demolition-charges?

Bonnex will be around sooner or later to identify the first and second.

TimG
 
The second image shows three 'flexible limpets' connected together, presumably for a particular target. The flexible limpets shown are an early form of the device which was improvised in the field from standard supplies or made up at Stations IX & XII for urgent purposes (these may be referred to as 'Lampreys' rather than Limpets). Later, components known as saddles and end pieces were devised to make field assembly easier and the charge more reliable. The saddles were fitted with magnets and the end pieces were fitted with magnets and fuze wells for the AC Delay. Home production of the Flexible Limpet Type 6 Mark II was anticipated in lieu of the Rigid Limpet but the idea was discarded in favour of Rigid Limpet production.

It is likely that some form of instruction sheet was issued to users but I have not seen one.

I cannot unscramble the first image sufficiently well to make any useful comment.

The attached might be useful:

View attachment limpet197-Die feindlichen Sabotagemittel-Opt.pdf
 
Thank you N. for your instructive answer. It is always a pleasure to talk with people that know what they are talking about. The text attached to the first item on the first foto says: "Geballte Haftladung" is a cube of 4-5 kg of explosive with 4 saddlemagnets attached to two opposing ends. Your foto is from a german publication dt. February 44. They did not seem to have known the newer developments (Wreath C.,Cavity Link C.)as detailed in that Australian SOA (SRD) history publication. The item on the page before your above picture, "Hohlladung mit Haftmagneten", is the only non-standard shaped charge design the german publication contains. This item i did not find in the Australian catalog or anywhere else. What special use was it deigned for ? Shaped charges were a very new technology in 1944 and I'm amazed at the technological advance of the cavity charges shown. Nothing much has changed since then. Oh, I nearly forgot to ask you: In the australian description of the "Wreath Charge" is says, that for oil tanks it was to be used together with a "Tar Baby". What exactly was the "Tar Baby" ?
Regards,
Bellifortis.
 
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The Tar Baby Incendiary was a composite store comprising two ‘Tysules’ and an ML Incendiary fitted, as necessary, with an initiating set (two pull switches or two CTIs). The devices were assembled into a roll of sackingwrapped with wire mesh. The assembly was soaked in tar. Weighing close to 1.2kg it was about 150mm in diameter and 300 mm long.


Tar Baby.jpg
 
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The second image shows three 'flexible limpets' connected together, presumably for a particular target. The flexible limpets shown are an early form of the device which was improvised in the field from standard supplies or made up at Stations IX & XII for urgent purposes (these may be referred to as 'Lampreys' rather than Limpets). Later, components known as saddles and end pieces were devised to make field assembly easier and the charge more reliable. The saddles were fitted with magnets and the end pieces were fitted with magnets and fuze wells for the AC Delay. Home production of the Flexible Limpet Type 6 Mark II was anticipated in lieu of the Rigid Limpet but the idea was discarded in favour of Rigid Limpet production.

It is likely that some form of instruction sheet was issued to users but I have not seen one.

I cannot unscramble the first image sufficiently well to make any useful comment.

The attached might be useful:

View attachment 146164

Herewith a photograph of the Flexible Limpet Type 6.

limpet197a.jpg
 
Thank you N. for your instructive answer. It is always a pleasure to talk with people that know what they are talking about. The text attached to the first item on the first foto says: "Geballte Haftladung" is a cube of 4-5 kg of explosive with 4 saddlemagnets attached to two opposing ends. Your foto is from a german publication dt. February 44. They did not seem to have known the newer developments (Wreath C.,Cavity Link C.)as detailed in that Australian SOA (SRD) history publication. The item on the page before your above picture, "Hohlladung mit Haftmagneten", is the only non-standard shaped charge design the german publication contains. This item i did not find in the Australian catalog or anywhere else. What special use was it deigned for ? Shaped charges were a very new technology in 1944 and I'm amazed at the technological advance of the cavity charges shown. Nothing much has changed since then. Oh, I nearly forgot to ask you: In the australian description of the "Wreath Charge" is says, that for oil tanks it was to be used together with a "Tar Baby". What exactly was the "Tar Baby" ?
Regards,
Bellifortis.

This is the closest I can get to a charge along the lines of the description and it is the only charge that I am aware of that uses magnets in tandem. This charge was developed for the Sleeping Beauty (motorised submersible canoe) programme.

SBL.jpg
 
Hallo N.,
thank you again for the additional info.Regarding your last picture (Sleeping Beauty) I phrased my question wrong. The magnets are attached to the 4 corners, 10 pounds Dynamit (I think that means Nobels Expl.), shaped like a cube, rubber impregnated cloth covering and standard double Bickford ignition. This charge and a few others I think were standard demolition charges also used by engineer troops. The manual mentions a charge, the germans named "Sprengpackung Afrika"(Charge Africa), because they saw it there for the first time. A strong paperbag, 20cm wide containing a 12cm ball of black plastic expl. and all the standard ignition train materials. Black Plastic ? Another charge they call "Gummihaftladung": 400 gr of expl. covered with a Al/Mg shell and fastened with rubber suction cups on gasometers a.s.o. 5-10min after fastening they detonate and ignite the object. Also a "Grosse-Thermit-Brandbombe" (Big Thermite-Bomb) an Elektronbody, 23cm long, 5cm dia. weighing 875 gr containing "Eisenhammerschlag-Thermit". I love this german phrasing, because it is so precise. Even a Non-Chemist knows what type of thermite is meant. Elektron endplugs were screwd in the ends. A short piece of bickford was sticking out 3cm below one end from the side. This charge also I did not find in any of my british publications.
Regards,
Bellifortis.
 
There was a square charge (7 1/4 x 7 1/4 x 1 3/4 inches) with four magnets but it only weighed 5 pounds. I don't think it became a standard Engineer charge.

Jock Lewes (SAS) devised a charge comprising a ration bag, PE, incendiary material, primer and dual ignition for the attack of stationary aircraft. Recipes varied but PE(including Black PE) was a stock item albeit in short supply and effectively reserved for SF. There is a mention of the Lewes Bomb (so called) in an official publication:

Royal Engineers Training Memorandum No 3, 1942. Lewes is not mentioned and Nobels 808 substitutes for PE2/3/3A .
 
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Hello Bonnex,
The same from IWM :

View attachment 146201
Yes, it is a very nice example of the charge with a flotation bag. The charge itself - the brass box plus AC Delay - was known as a Hornbill charge. A brass harness added either magnets(two sorts) to the charge or provided nail-gun sockets.
 
Yes, it is a very nice example of the charge with a flotation bag. The charge itself - the brass box plus AC Delay - was known as a Hornbill charge. A brass harness added either magnets(two sorts) to the charge or provided nail-gun sockets.

I wonder if that was named after SRD's Operation HORNBILL, which later morphed into the disastrous second raid on Singapore Harbour, code-named Operation RIMAU? RIMAU was planned as a British SOE Force 136 operating using SRD personnel.

From the very start HORNBILL/RIMAU had planned to use SBs to attack the targets with limpets and indeed SBs were on the captured junk, the "Mustika" when the RIMAU party were compromised.
 
I wonder if that was named after SRD's Operation HORNBILL, […].

Yes, I believe that to be correct. Its formal 'VOCAB' name became Charge, Demolition, MSC, Mk I and, when combined with a 'Harness, Magnetic, for Charge, Demolition, MSC, Mk I' it became
Charge, Demolition, MSC, Mk I, Magnetic. A nail gun version was available and the buoyancy aid could be added to any of the combinations.
 
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There was a square charge (7 1/4 x 7 1/4 x 1 3/4 inches) with four magnets but it only weighed 5 pounds. I don't think it became a standard Engineer charge.

Jock Lewes (SAS) devised a charge comprising a ration bag, PE, incendiary material, primer and dual ignition for the attack of stationary aircraft. Recipes varied but PE(including Black PE) was a stock item albeit in short supply and effectively reserved for SF. There is a mention of the Lewes Bomb (so called) in an official publication:

Royal Engineers Training Memorandum No 3, 1942. Lewes is not mentioned and Nobels 808 substitutes for PE2/3/3A .

Old thread but I want to add that I have that training pamphlet around here somewhere. Small, shows a diagram of the Lewes Bomb (they don't call it that) with dual time pencils, dets, which I think was a standard redundancy engineers used for demolition. But it mentions, I am paraphrasing from vague memory, that "units in the field report using single ignition and 100% success."

Success when correctly assembled anyway. One of the SAS books talks about the raid by unit leader David Stirling, Blair "Paddy" Mayne, and two troopers, where they parked their two jeeps outside the airfield, three walked in and placed 40 bombs on planes. They came out and stayed to watch the fireworks. They counted only 18 explosions. Checked some remaining bombs and realized some failed due to damp primers. I assume that meant they were guncotton pellets? So they decided to go back in with the jeeps and attack the non-burning planes with their machine guns. This was successful and it caused Stirling to decide to change tactics, not using jeeps just for transportation but to add more guns and rear gunners to them to conduct gun attacks, not sneaking around placing time bombs. This is the story anyway.

I believe the Lewes Bomb was one pound 808, quarter pound thermite, and used motor oil kneaded in which was Lewes' invention to slow the burn enough to light gasoline on fire instead of the explosive blowing all the oxygen away and not lighting the gas. The objective was to create a HE and incendiary to blow a hole in the gas tanks and light the gas so the plane would destroy itself. But it had to be in a small package so a man could carry 12 or more in a rucksack. The sappers told them that was impossible, they would need two separate bombs which would be heavy. Lewes had the answer.

It had a 1 ounce primer with detonator in the explosive ball (I wonder if the oil made it black?), a short piece of Cordtex went to that, the assembly was put into a ration bag with Cordtex sticking out, taped to another det which was on a 2 or 3 inch length of safety fuse, the fuse being inserted into the fuse snout of the pencil. Safety fuse offered a short amount of time in case the pencil tripped early, for the operator to pull it apart or throw it. Pencil was then taped to the bag, which was smeared with sticky tar. This was then wrapped in a cloth and put in the rucksack. At the target the pencils were activated early or at time of placing the bombs. The operator would take off the protective cloth and toss the bomb up onto the bomber or transport's wing above its tank. Or place on the seat of a fighter. The tar would keep the bomb from rolling down the wing or flying off during an explosion on the next plane. Very successful tactic until the Italians and Germans started posting guards at each plane. So one can see why jeep attacks with up to four Vickers Ks shooting 1,000 rpm each was a better choice.
 
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