US M124A1 Tail Fuze

[ramc181]

Apologies, I forgot to post these photos of this fuze I picked up at Beltring...

M124A1 Fuze, Bomb, Tail, Chemical Delay (36 hours in his instance) with Anti-Withdrawal Device, as fitted to US 500lb GP bombs from the last 12 months of WWII onwards.
This particular example is dated June 1954.

The anti-withdrawal device.
Any attempt to unscrew this fuze once installed would cause this ball bearing to bind against the inside of the fuze well, after a quarter-turn it would unscrew the gold-coloured section enough to release the firing pin and detonate the bomb.

I'm still looking for a locking collar and the safety pin that holds the vanes on to complete this example.

All the best,
PB

 

[butterfly]

Well done finding that one, looks to be in fantastic condition...
I hope someone can help you out with the missing bits.

regards Kev

 

[EOD]

Hardly, these were demilled and all other parts are gone for good.

 

[ramc181]

Cheers Kev,

I did note another one from the same production batch was up for sale in the USA a week or so later.

Regards the missing parts, the vane securing pin appears to have been a standard size industrial safety pin, which are still in production.
Unfortunately I don't know the specified size to order one.

Again, the locking collar is a pressing with a standard sized threaded hole, and quite likely to have had other uses.

All the best,
PB

 

[Fusse2004]

Hello PB! Thus your bomb fuze looks from the inside!!!! Greeting and good new year Harry

 

[Fusse2004]

Sorry! Pictures forget!!! Is a 123A1 however yours is only somewhat longer. Inner feelings are alike. Harry

 

[ramc181]

Thanks for the photos Harry.

 

[HAZORD]

The U.S. bomb tail fuzes come in 3 lengths, the lengths being proportional to the size of the tail fins that they rest inside of, when installed. The shortest fuzes are for the 100 LB through 250 LB size bombs. The medium length fuzes are designed to fit on the 500 Lb and 1,000 Lb bombs, and the longest is for the 2,000 Lb bomb.

 

[Mrfuze]

Hi PB, contact me under mtifuze@yahoo.com, regarding the pin for the vane assembly. I have them, just shoot me an email with your datas.
Mrfuze, USA

 

[ramc181]

My apologies, I've only just noticed your reply. :embarassed:

E-mail duly sent.

All the best,
PB

 

[weberoed]

Do any of the EOD guys out there remember the roll out procedure to defeat this fuze? Remember during training and on another operational test, having to roll a 250lb GP and a 500 lb GP over the ground, back and forth. Not an easy task. Unfortuantely I just found out the actual steps in the roll out are still classified. Da the fuze has been out of the inventory since the late 60's. While in VN at an ASP (bein Ha Air BAse 1966 I think) that had been hit by sappers, the Airforce was running in circles trying to get the loaded bombs moved out of the area. These fuzes were then taken away. Of course the fuze had some other procedures still classifeid, they were a pain in the ass to complete too