Incendiary bombs British

Only when the bomb struck very near some readily combustible material was there any danger(Ref 1) The incendiary bombs of WWII were much more effective as also were the bombing planes. This made it possible to conduct incendiary bombing on a very large scale, especially by the Americans and British. For instance, accdg to Stettbacher (Ref 16), the number of incendiary bombs dropped on Koln(June 28,1943) was 100,000, on Berlin (March 8,1944) 200,000, Tokyo(March 15,1945) 325,000 and Hitler s Headquarters(May 25,1945) 600,000. Damages and casualties inflicted by incendiary bombs were about ten times greater than that caused by explosive bombs(Ref 16)... 

Tire M50A2 4 lb Incendiary Bomb was similar to British and German models. It was hexagonal in shape and had a body of cast-magnesium alioy (1.25 lbs), an iron nose plug and a sheet-metal tail. It was 21.3 long and... 

The CWS ETO was unable for most of 1942 to supply incendiary bombs. The British 30- and 250-pound incendiaries were therefore... 

In order to meet the technical portion of his functions, Copthorne had set up a Technical Advisory Board to maintain scientific liaison with the British, the Australians, and within the U.S. forces, and to advise the laboratories. Also, several of Copthorne s subordinates had begun munitions testing. Two of them, Capt. Richard H. Cone and Lt. James W. Parker were killed in an air accident while carrying out experiments to determine whether incendiary bombs could be improvised from training bombs, using gasoline thickened with crude rubber as a filling. ... 

Memo for the Secretary, Ordnance Technical Committee. 1 Apr 4l, sub Bombs. Standardization by Army, Navy, British Purchasing Committee. Cited as ref a, CWTC Item 1220, Obsoletion of 40-lb Steel Case Type Incendiary Bombs and Clusters for Same, 11 Jan 45. (2) Bomb, Incendiary, 4-lb, and Bomb, Incendiary, 40-lb, Classified as Standard and Designated Bomb, Incendiary, 4-lb, AN-M50, and Bomb, Incendiary, 40-lb, AN-M51, 19 May 4l. OCM 16816. (3) Bombs, Incendiary, 4-lb, AN-M50-X, 4-lb, AN-M50, and 40-lb, AN-M51, Clearance for Procurement and Classification as Standard, 22 Jul 41. OCM 17028. 

Another development that facilitated preparations for chemical warfare under the Munitions Program was the receipt of pertinent information from the British. The assistant military attache in London in the emergency period, a CWS officer, obtained access to data on development and production methods for chemical warfare items, on British smoke operations for screening critical installations, on the effects of incendiary bombing, and on the types of German incendiaries dropped on London. 

Marshall (Ref 1, Vol 3) states that the British used a mild but hot expl, Ophorite (qv), during WWI as an opening charge for incendiary shells and smoke bombs... 

The German example was followed by the French and British and later by the Americans A 2Q lb bomb developed by the French was called Chenard" and was considered to be successful. It contained a mixture of rosin and celluloid as the principal incendiary material. 

Flaming Thermit. An incendiary mixture developed by the British during WWI and used in dietr small unit (cluster) bombs. It was a mixture of commercial thermit and barium nitrate... 

In 1916 the British introduced a new means of projecting gas, the 4-inch Stokes mortar, developed from the 3-inch version of this weapon, which had been the standard mortar in the British Army. Because of their inability to manufacture gas shells, the British first used the mortar to fire improvised smokes and incendiaries. The Stokes gas shell, or bomb, as the British called it, contained six pounds of agent as compared to three pounds for the British 4.5-inch heavy howitzer shell. 

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