P-38s Dropping Fire Bombs

Lockheed P-38 s Dropping Fire Bombs near Ipo Dam, Luzon. 

Fire bombs were made in many sizes, from small tanks holding 30 gallons up to tanks of 300-gallon capacity. In Europe the most popular sizes were 100, 108, and 110 gallons in the Pacific 150 and l65 gallons. All together, the AAF dropped more than 12,000 fire bombs over Europe, while Army, Navy, and Marine planes in the Pacific employed twice that number against the Japanese.  

Maj Charles W. Boggs, Jr., Marine Corps Monographs, Marine Aviation in the Philippines (Washington, 1951), p. 92. 

The incendiary bomb most widely used against Japan was a 6-pounder. The NDRC conceived the idea for the bomb in 1941 after European air raids had proven the effectiveness of small incendiaries. Since magnesium was scarce, the NDRC contracted with the Standard Oil Development Company for a steel-cased bomb filled with thickened gasoline.  

An innovation in this bomb was the design of the stabilizers. Instead of metal fins the tail consisted of cloth ribbons. These saved weight and space (the ribbons were folded in the base of the bomb and were unfolded by the airstream). Also, because of air resistance, they kept the bomb from dropping too fast and penetrating too deeply. The ideal velocity would be just enough for the bomb to break its way through a roof and come to rest on the rafters. 

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