What's new
British Ordnance Collectors Network

Join over 14,000 collectors of inert military ordnance. Get expert identification help for shells, fuzes, grenades, and more — plus access our classifieds marketplace and decades of archived knowledge. Free to register, takes seconds.

Italian 4 Kg Manzolini bomb

B

blu97

HONOURED MEMBER RIP
Ordnance approved
Here a pic of the Italian 4 Kg manzolini bomb and the fuze, the bomb itself is a replica, both fuzes are real. The fuze in the bomb is aluminium and the other brass. According to Op 1668 Italian & French Explosive Ordnance the brass one is anti disturbance and the aluminium is anti disturbance and self destruct, can anyone confirm that?.
Thanks Blu.
 

Attachments

  • manzolini.jpg
    manzolini.jpg
    51.5 KB · Views: 205
  • manzolini fuze.jpg
    manzolini fuze.jpg
    80.5 KB · Views: 194
What a wonderful and extremely rare fuze , I visited the Maltese bomb squad a few years ago , hoping to actually see one of these mines , all they had were fragments, Then earlier this year i had a call from the son of one of the British bomb disposal sappers , who was stationed on Malta throughout the seige , who told me that these fuzes had an oil dash pot inside.i will try to find the notes i made at the time.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sorry Eric, I'm away from my books. I don't trust the 9-1985 series that much, too many errors. Do you have the TM called " Enemy Bombs"? That would be the next place i would check - it is one of the TM E series. If you don't have it remind me when I get back and I'll check it.

blu97 said:
Here a pic of the Italian 4 Kg manzolini bomb and the fuze, the bomb itself is a replica, both fuzes are real. The fuze in the bomb is aluminium and the other brass. According to Op 1668 Italian & French Explosive Ordnance the brass one is anti disturbance and the aluminium is anti disturbance and self destruct, can anyone confirm that?.
Thanks Blu.
Click to expand...
 
Thermos bomb

This certainly looks to be the 'Thermos' bomb. Designed to explode if disturbed after they fell, these were dropped in their hundreds across civilian areas of Malta in November 1941.
 
I have a copy of Major Arthur Hogben's book, `Designed to kill'. Page 99 gives diagrams of a fuze, similar to your photos. They are titled `Italian bomb 4AR (Thermos)'. `4AR' stood for `4 kg Armamento Retardato', delayed arming bomb.
Before the bomb was dropped the safety pin was withdrawn, allowing the vanes to rotate as the bomb fell. The vanes were part of a cap and once unscrewed, the cap fell away from the bomb. Air caught the projections that stick out from near the top of the bomb and pulled off the cup from the bomb, releasing the primary safety devices from the fuze. The bomb fuze, still falling, now looks like the fuze in the second photo. On initial impact with the ground the secondary safety devices were released and after a few more seconds the bomb was fully armed. The bomb could then detonate when jerked or jolted. An alternative fuze version incorporated a timer (type not stated, but presumably clockwork) that could be pre-set to detonate up to 80 hours after impact, even when left undisturbed. An area denial weapon, then.
 
What I don't understand is, where are the bodies for this submunition? Over the years I have seen maybe 50 of the fuzes spread between Europe and the US, but no more than a couple of the bodies at most. Normally it would be the opposite. Anybody know why?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top