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British made B1 Incendiary

N

NickW

Active Member
A while ago I saw a thread about wartime copies of German B1 Incendiary bombs and finally found mine and wanted to post a photo, but cannot find the thread now - so apologies for starting a new one!

Anyway here it is - The body appears to be steel and the paint seems original and the fins appear to be well made welded and pressed steel copies of a heavier gauge than orginals in my collection. I have not opened it up as yet, but it apperas to have aluminium components inside. Finally the only markings I can see is the stamped inscription on the body "INERT CAR 422 EOD".

incendiary.jpg
 
Aye,nice example Nick. I also have a couple of these knocking around the collection room. Im certain they were made as training aids.

best

waff
 
Thanks Waff - I have been looking at a bit more closely and decided to see what was inside - The body is clearly marked EOD & INERT, so I felt it OK to do this. The screws were very difficult to remove! The body of the bomb is all one piece turned and welded steel - including the tail cone, with the fins welded directly on - quite unlike the original B1 - but very well made. Once the screws were removed, the end disc was easy to move and proved to be the base of a heavy gauge steel cup that extended into the body just past the drilled air holes. This was partly filled with a cast very soft plaster type substance containing what appeared to be gypsum - this had shrunk and was loose and breaking up and very messy, so was removed - Anyone any idea what the purpose of this internal structure was? Could there have been some means for it to emit smoke to make the training more realistic? I do have a couple of these if anyone is interested.

B1 Open.jpg
 
Hi Nick,

I would guess that the plaster type substance would be to represent the filling in both weight and looks?

cheers

waff
 
Hi Miguel

I believe they were manufactured as training aids for the Army and Civil Defence organisations during WWII.
 
Hmmm. Are these really wartime? Was the phrase 'EOD' used in wartime? I thought it was a post-war designation. And out of steel - a precious commodity in wartime. I have seen dummy IBs and SD2s but these are either made of old tins or wood. Several countries probably perservered with these IBs after the war as they were a proven design. I think these are British 1950s.
 
Maybe they were marked EOD at some later stage after the war to prove that they were inert? I still reckon they are wartime training aids.

best

waffy
 
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