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A mysterious (German ?) incendiary bomb

Dreamk

Well-Known Member
I am puzzled (and apparently I am not alone in this) by this ww2 period bomb, constantly defined as an incendiary bomb, that keeps reappearing in various collections in Scandinavia - but apparently a model was also present in a EOD school in Italy in the afterwar. Some photographs were posted a long time ago in this forum, but without conclusion.
The tail is totally different of the known German incendiary bombs. But maybe it is not German.

The last "apparition" is a sample in Finland, at the ilmatorjuntamuseo in Tuusula near Helsinki and has slight differences (in paricular in the tail conus - here a nose fuze seems to replace the tail fuze) from the 2 other ones:

ilmatorjuntamuseo (Tuusula) 71005315 (1).jpg

This one comes from Norway and is currently displayed in the "digitalmuseum" site with the mention: origin - United Kingdom "sure"
https://digitaltmuseum.org/011025155249/bombe

Screenshot 2025-08-01 101122.jpg

The third series of photograghs comes from this forum - unprecised location origin but apparently a Dutch cllection.

weet niet 025.jpgweet niet 029.jpgweet niet 033.jpg

Who can identify?
 
This one comes from Norway and is currently displayed in the "digitalmuseum" site with the mention: origin - United Kingdom "sure"
https://digitaltmuseum.org/011025155249/bombe

View attachment 205478

The third series of photograghs comes from this forum - unprecised location origin but apparently a Dutch cllection.

View attachment 205479View attachment 205480View attachment 205481

Who can identify?
It looks like an aerial bomb at first glance, but it is actually a Fug... radio system built into it .... German system .At the bottom is the antenna input ...
 
Excellent. Chris and Akon, thank you very much!

Indeed, a strange bomb looking device. Now that the object is identified, I could find some details:


The full original documentation file can be donwloaded from the German Bundesarchiv ("Invenio Archiv)
reference:
RL 17/595
Fugb-6.- Fibel FuG. 302 (Schwan See)
Aug. 1944


Screenshot 2025-08-01 144750.jpg090728-F-1234O-002.JPGScreenshot 2025-08-01 144503.jpgScreenshot 2025-08-01 144552.jpg
 
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Such an interesting fact about the production of Fug 302 and others. The production took place in the vicinity of Liberec (ČSR) and, among other things, an underground shelter and a testing facility were built, as well as a water tank where Fug 302 to Fug 308 fa (Getewent G.m.B.H) ... were tested for water 1754059400280.png
 
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Re : Firma Getewent -Gesellschaft für technisch-wirtschaftliche Entwicklungen m.b.H. Reichenau, Kreis Gablonz .
 
The antenna, or drag plate or whatever it is on the back of the FuG 303 is very reminiscent of one of the air-dropped sensors used in Vietnam, or, well, Laos. But on that it was designed to prevent the sensor from penetrating too far in soft soil.
 
.... also thought about the direction in which they used it, but this is unlike the further development, the transmitter is a one-way system in this version, the direct one is the Fug 16....
I guess by appearance (construction): FuG 303 is for guidance on ground targets, Fug. 304 for naval targets. FuG 305, Fug 308 I guess for ground targets and with a braking system (parachute?)-----------------So could it be used as a radio beacon for bombing?
There are examples from other armies - although at that time they were controlled manually by partisans, by landing ... .
But what about bombing in the water?
When we know that the submarine will not wait and will try to disappear ..
Akon
 
.... also thought about the direction in which they used it, but this is unlike the further development, the transmitter is a one-way system in this version, the direct one is the Fug 16....
I guess by appearance (construction): FuG 303 is for guidance on ground targets, Fug. 304 for naval targets. FuG 305, Fug 308 I guess for ground targets and with a braking system (parachute?)-----------------So could it be used as a radio beacon for bombing?
There are examples from other armies - although at that time they were controlled manually by partisans, by landing ... .
But what about bombing in the water?
When we know that the submarine will not wait and will try to disappear ..
Akon
Fug 304 for naval target seems to be a problem for You to the due of mobile target. You are right, but why to think on a target to destroy ? Could il not be a guidance system for Search and Rescue units ?
 
I have found additional info, now that we know what this object is.
First the sample from Norway appearing in the DigitalMuseum site, wrongly labelled, is part of teh collection of the Defense Museum in Oslo - where it is correctly labelled as "Funkboje Schwan".

Second, the length of the "bomb-like" body of the Fug-202 is 192cm. The Fug-202 was carried on bomb racks suited for SC-250 bombs.

Third - concerning this picture :

Screenshot 2025-08-01 144552.jpg

Fug 303
"Schwan Land" a Land version of the FuG 302, was equipped with a sharp tip and a braking ring for launching over land. It was built in small numbers.

FuG 304
In 1943-1944, the DeTeWe company produced a small series of 50 units of the FuG 304 drop-deployable shortwave distress buoy, which was intended to mark maritime emergencies in remote areas and therefore emitted shortwave direction finders. Since a 5-meter-long rod antenna was required to achieve reasonable antenna efficiency, the device was considerably heavier (122 kg) than the other drop-deployable devices discussed (approximately 103 kg).

Note: I have a feeling that the above text has mixed FuG 303 and 304 as teh descruiption fots better teh darwing of teh FuG 303 than the one of the FuG 304

FuG 305
A drawing from November 1943 for the FuG 305 drop radio (manufacturer Grätz) shows a bomb-like casing with a parachute flap, which was intended to guarantee a drop time of up to 30 minutes for the 19.5 kg device. Unlike the devices discussed so far, this one (and those listed below) was intended to transmit immediately after release during the drop. Whether the FuG 305 was identical to the "Frosch II" drop radiosonde or identical to the "Frosch IV" drop jammer (transmitting frequency around 200 MHz to disrupt the English hyperbolic navigation system "GEE" / two fixed ground stations transmitting synchronized pulses. This resulted in two intersecting hyperbolic fields. This system was used for the GEE system) cannot be determined.

FuG 307 (FuG 308 ?)
A further development of the above-mentioned radio buoy was the FuG 307 "Swan-Air" VHF radio buoy, designed for target designation. Its exterior resembled the FuG 305 design and, when dropped from a great height and suspended from a parachute, was designed to transmit signals for as long as possible, allowing aircraft equipped with the FuG 16 Z (Y) or FuG 17 Z to approach the target using the device. It could also have been used at sea for surface ships equipped with the LO 10 UK39 "Marine-Fritz" radio buoy. To achieve the longest possible drop times, a fuel element was attached beneath the parachute. This was designed to generate so much warm air that it acted like a hot-air balloon, keeping the "Swan-Air" at an altitude of 8,000 meters for an hour. The subsequent descent was to take 30 minutes. After testing the sample devices at the E-Stelle Rechlin, an order for 300 units was placed, but this was canceled when series production began in May 1944.

Now, concerning the FuG 302:
The FuG 302 was a floating radio buoy shaped like a bomb, which was also dropped from an aircraft and contained a variety of devices.
After the body was dropped over the target (the drop had to take place at a maximum speed of 250 km/h and a maximum altitude of 300 m, while the water had to be 50 m deep), the previously folded telescopic antenna was extended. A clockwork mechanism, which was adjusted accordingly during the approach to the target, switched on a transmitter after impact with the water. This then emitted radio signals for 10 minutes so that the aircraft crew could check the functionality of the transmitter via a receiving device. The transmitter then switched off again and, after a pre-set time of between 1 and 29 hours, continued to emit radio signals for around 5 hours. To prevent the device from falling into enemy hands after the energy generated by a 14.4 volt special collector set had been used up, it was detonated using a long-term detonator EL.AZ 17 A and explosive charges, after a pre-set time of between 2 and 72 hours, whereupon it sank.

The telescopic antenna was placed at the stern of the bomb-shaped buoy's 192 cm long body.

The buoy's quartz-controlled transmitter had an output of 3 Watts and transmitted on a fixed frequency (40 MHz modulated / 45 MHz unmodulated). All the planes needed to pick up the signals was a FuG 16ZY or FuG 17Z.

At a flying height of 3,600 m, the Fug 302's range was approx. 200 km and the accuracy was approx. 100 meters

In the autumn of 1944, E-Stelle Trav tested a modified version of the radio buoy, and it was presumably this version, which should have been laid out in the event of an attack on Scapa Flow. Funkboje Schwan was to be dropped from a height of no more than 300 m and could e.g. are laid out in connection with a minelay immediately before the attack on Scapa Flow, so that the British defenses did not discover the real reason for the layoff.

To locate the FuG 302, an aircraft must be equipped with either a FuG 16 Z (Y) or a FuG 17 Z), and fly at an altitude of 4000m, and until the signal emitted by the buyo was first detected in the receiver, use omnidirectional reception (BZB). The higher the altitude chosen when approaching the FuG 302, the closer the aircraft need to be to detect thr signal - Four times the altitude giving double the range.
The transmitter could also be identified when tuning by a movement of the homing indicator, provided that the aircarft was in navigation mode and not currently flying towards the FuG 302. Using the latter method, the FuG 302 transmitter was usually easier to tune at greater distances than by listening. The closer the aircarft got to the FuG 302, the lower the aircraft could fly. The FuG 302's overflight was recognized by the strong swing of the course indicator on the AFN1 and the single drop in the output voltage indicator. When mines or bombs were dropped in this way, hit patterns of 100 meters around the radio beacon were achieved.

The FuG 302 was to be deployed by FW 200 Condor and JU 290 reconnaissance aircraft equipped with Hohentwiel or similar radar systems,as well as by the BV222 Flying Boat.
Anything that was difficult to spot due to camouflage or poor visibility, or difficult to attack by anti-aircraft missiles at low altitude, such as port facilities, clusters of ships and convoys, could be considered as a target for such operations.
While a single reconnaissance aircraft could search for the target and drop the FuG 302 there under difficult conditions, but not easily visible to the enemy, for example in low-level flight, the radio signals then sent out guided larger bomber formations, which picked up these signals via their receivers, to these targets, whereby they could fly at high altitudes to protect themselves from visual interference and from enemy anti-aircraft defenses.
The advantage was that a single, not easily recognizable aircraft, relatively safe but equipped with expensive search equipment, could locate and mark the target, while the bomber units directed there could attack the target effectively at high altitude and without this equipment.

Marking the drop point, mining with radio probe "Swan":
"When numerous aircraft are deployed to a drop site that is to be heavily mined, an aircraft equipped with a Hohentwiel (FuG 200) can mark the drop site for the following aircraft by dropping a radio probe. The range of this radio probe for the approaching aircraft is approximately 200 km at an altitude of 3600 m. Such a radio probe can be approached by any number of aircraft. The probe's overflight can be determined to within a few hundred meters."
 
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An article on the FuG 302 with drawings and photos can be found in Waffenrevue No. 96 and 97.
The source is the manual shared above :)

Bob
 
A SAB-25 (САБ-25) sectional diagram.

SAB-25 (САБ-25) Illumination Bomb Sectional Diagram - Soviet MoD - 1.png

And another image showing (from left-to-right) a PTAB-10-5 (ПТАБ-10-5) anti-armour submunition, a SAB-25 (САБ-25), a SAB-50-15 (САБ-50-15), and the two black colouration bombs that have M-46 type tails.

PTAB-10-5 (ПТАБ-10-5) Submunition & SAB-25 (САБ-25) & SAB-50-15 (САБ-50-15) Illumination Bomb...jpeg
 
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