German bomb id ?

[klem]

Identification of a German bomb type - an idea!

 

[T. A. Gardner]

It looks like one of the often trotted out variants of a German nuclear weapon.



It would be the one at the lower left-hand corner. About the only pictures you can find of it are in model kits.

 

[Dilandu]

Frankly, it looks like the tail part of the bomb without warhead. May it be that it's just a part of model?

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Frankly, it looks like the tail part of the bomb without warhead. May it be that it's just a part of model?

Could actually be that, but it is also widely reproduced as the picture looks in accessory kits for modelling.





It's kits like those that are about the only place I see this item.

 

[klem]

Thanks dear T.A.Gardner for your help. I have often seen on the net these kit pictures representing an atomic bomb model. However, without any reference, and comparing them with the model I posted, one notices some inconsistencies, notably the size scale which I find a bit exaggerated on the kit (to say that it is an atomic bomb). I think it is a different type of bomb but not an atomic one and to get a very accurate idea of the size of the bomb (even if it is a wind tunnel model) compared to other wind tunnel model bombs shown in the same picture, I attach here the pictures in their entirety from (German Scientific Establishments-Report of Colonel Leslie E. Simon-Mapleton House, Publishers.1947)

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Well, there's plenty of obscure German projects out there. For example, there are the Dr. Steinmann (working in the RLM) aerial mines for attacking Soviet hydroelectric dams. There were two versions:

Winterballon: An SC 1000 bomb with a parachute and a inflatable float on the tail activated by a CO2 cartridge. A cable cutting device was fitted to the bomb's nose. The intent was this bomb would float in the reservoir of the dam, riding in over or through any nets present and be drawn into the turbine intakes.

Sommerballon: A similar device but now intended to creep along the lake bottom.

Both went so far as to be unsuccessfully tested on a frozen lake near Finse Lappland Finland being dropped from a He 111. Despite the failures in testing both were produced in some quantity and were available for use in late 1944. Of course, by then their use was moot as the target dams were no longer in range of remaining German bombers.

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Thanks dear T.A.Gardner for your help. I have often seen on the net these kit pictures representing an atomic bomb model. However, without any reference, and comparing them with the model I posted, one notices some inconsistencies, notably the size scale which I find a bit exaggerated on the kit (to say that it is an atomic bomb). I think it is a different type of bomb but not an atomic one and to get a very accurate idea of the size of the bomb (even if it is a wind tunnel model) compared to other wind tunnel model bombs shown in the same picture, I attach here the pictures in their entirety from (German Scientific Establishments-Report of Colonel Leslie E. Simon-Mapleton House, Publishers.1947)

Yea, if that's its size compared to things like a BT 700 (extreme left in first photo), it's far too small to be a nuclear weapon. My guess is that it's a solid stage booster for some other bomb or missile.

 

[Hood]

Does the 300 refer to its intended weight in kilos?
300kg would be a fairly small bomb, it could perhaps be a booster stage for a larger bomb or maybe a frag/cluster weapon of some kind?

 

[Grzesio]

Yea, if that's its size compared to things like a BT 700 (extreme left in first photo), it's far too small to be a nuclear weapon. My guess is that it's a solid stage booster for some other bomb or missile.

Wind tunnel models are not made to uniform scale, their size rather corresponds to the wind tunnel. For example in the 2nd photo in the post #5 there are LC 50 flare and AB 70 cluster bomb, which are some 110 cm long in real life, plus something looking like a WLK bomb torpedo, also a couple of metres (say, 350 cm) long.

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Yea, if that's its size compared to things like a BT 700 (extreme left in first photo), it's far too small to be a nuclear weapon. My guess is that it's a solid stage booster for some other bomb or missile.

Wind tunnel models are not made to uniform scale, their size rather corresponds to the wind tunnel. For example in the 2nd photo in the post #5 there are LC 50 flare and AB 70 cluster bomb, which are some 110 cm long in real life, plus something looking like a WLK bomb torpedo, also a couple of metres (say, 350 cm) long.

I was assuming they were all made for the same wind tunnel and would be correspondingly to scale.

 

[Dilandu]

Does the 300 refer to its intended weight in kilos?

Likely so.

300kg would be a fairly small bomb, it could perhaps be a booster stage for a larger bomb or maybe a frag/cluster weapon of some kind?

Its possible that only the part of actual number survived (the "3" on photo looks quite like smeared "8"), and the bomb may actually be heavier

 

[klem]

Well, there's plenty of obscure German projects out there. For example, there are the Dr. Steinmann (working in the RLM) aerial mines for attacking Soviet hydroelectric dams. There were two versions:

Winterballon: An SC 1000 bomb with a parachute and a inflatable float on the tail activated by a CO2 cartridge. A cable cutting device was fitted to the bomb's nose. The intent was this bomb would float in the reservoir of the dam, riding in over or through any nets present and be drawn into the turbine intakes.

Sommerballon: A similar device but now intended to creep along the lake bottom.

Both went so far as to be unsuccessfully tested on a frozen lake near Finse Lappland Finland being dropped from a He 111. Despite the failures in testing both were produced in some quantity and were available for use in late 1944. Of course, by then their use was moot as the target dams were no longer in range of remaining German bombers.

Very interesting, Winterballon-Sommerballon german projects, I would love to see this in a thread, are there any documents available on the subject?

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Well, there's plenty of obscure German projects out there. For example, there are the Dr. Steinmann (working in the RLM) aerial mines for attacking Soviet hydroelectric dams. There were two versions:

Winterballon: An SC 1000 bomb with a parachute and a inflatable float on the tail activated by a CO2 cartridge. A cable cutting device was fitted to the bomb's nose. The intent was this bomb would float in the reservoir of the dam, riding in over or through any nets present and be drawn into the turbine intakes.

Sommerballon: A similar device but now intended to creep along the lake bottom.

Both went so far as to be unsuccessfully tested on a frozen lake near Finse Lappland Finland being dropped from a He 111. Despite the failures in testing both were produced in some quantity and were available for use in late 1944. Of course, by then their use was moot as the target dams were no longer in range of remaining German bombers.

Very interesting, Winterballon-Sommerballon german projects, I would love to see this in a thread, are there any documents available on the subject?

The only place I've ever seen them mentioned is here:

 

[Grzesio]

Winterballon, Sommerballon and Wasserballon bombs are also covered by Wolfgang Fleischer's Deutsche Abwurfmunition bis 1945 (not to be confused with his Deutsche Abwurfmunition im Zweiten Weltkrieg).

 

[Temistocle]

You can find some info in the "OP1673a German Underwater Ordnance" (I have the complete pdf file, but is 50 MB...), but extracts are available in the following links:

Winterballon
Wasserballoon

Some other info here:

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