Hi All - really hoping someone can help out..
One of my permission fields contains 3 WW2 craters from when a German bomber dropped his load just outside my home village - my village had a lucky escape. The explosion was apparantly considerable, burying the road into the village from over 60m away. My Gran actually recorded the event in her diary and it caused quite a stir at the time.
The craters still exist since the field has always been pasture - so no ploughing! As far as I can recall, no-one has investigated the field since the war, and no fragments have been found since.
At the end of a mornings detecting in the same field, I decided to chance my arm around the larger of the 3 craters (it is appx 8m across and the 2 smaller ones only 3m across), and found churned up ferrous rock inside (natural geology here), but when i searched around 2-3m from the crater rim I found a consistent ring of what appears to be shrapnel. The pieces are all heavy metallic, some still with sharp edges, evidently warped, of 2 distinct thicknesses (thinner of 7-10mm, thicker of 15-18mm) all found at a depth of 10-20cm.
I was particularly interested in 2 pieces - one thicker and very large with a distinctive curve to its form (which when I have calculated from the arc appears to show a circumference of appx 2ft), and a smaller piece with a lower half being a screw-thread, also on a curved arc.
I am wondering whether it is possible to guage the approximate size of a bomb from these scanty measurements - and whether I am correct in guessing they are shrapnel?
My intention (if corrrect) is to persuade my permissions owner to allow them to be displayed at the school as a reminder of the close-call the village had in the war.
I also have another question that troubles me - did German bombers carry different sized-bombs in their loads? The reason I ask is the fact that there are 3 craters, but 2 are considerably smaller than the one I investigated - could this be an indication that 2 may not have detonated??
Suffice to say I used to watch Danger UXB back in the day....I was v careful with how I approached this site and when I go back if ANYTHING suspicious appeared I would stop and call the experts!!!
Thanks - in advance!
Garratt EuroAce - zero discrimination, 4 notches down in sensitivity
Possible German bomb shrapnel???
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fred
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I know that some Allied bombers could carry mixed sized bombs so I would be pretty certain that the opposition could too. Bomb load would depend upon what make and model the aircraft was and what the purpose of the original mission was (most missions were not designed just to upset sheep 
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Martin B
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Interesting stuff,
I believe many German aircraft would have been carrying a 'mixed' load - typically a small number of iron cased HE bombs to blow off roof tiles and shatter windows, and to create structural instability, plus a much larger number of smaller magnesium cased incendiary bombs. The idea being that the HE would create the gaps needed to allow the incendiaries to penetrate to flammable material - roof joists, furniture etc. It would all depend on what the target was!
The Luftwaffe used various sizes of HE iron bombs, but the curve on your piece looks very slight - which would be a heck of a diameter bomb! You could measure the curve and calculate the likely diameter. But since you suggest that local knowledge reports a very substantial explosion, its perhaps possible that one device dropped was an aerial mine rather than a normal bomb!
Consider that British bombers would carry a normal load of smallish 500lb bombs, but towards the end of the war specially adapted Lancasters were carrying the 'Grand Slam' and 'Tallboy' bombs - up to 22,000lb!
If you find a big cylinder with a brass plug with 'type 17' stamped on it - leg it!
I believe many German aircraft would have been carrying a 'mixed' load - typically a small number of iron cased HE bombs to blow off roof tiles and shatter windows, and to create structural instability, plus a much larger number of smaller magnesium cased incendiary bombs. The idea being that the HE would create the gaps needed to allow the incendiaries to penetrate to flammable material - roof joists, furniture etc. It would all depend on what the target was!
The Luftwaffe used various sizes of HE iron bombs, but the curve on your piece looks very slight - which would be a heck of a diameter bomb! You could measure the curve and calculate the likely diameter. But since you suggest that local knowledge reports a very substantial explosion, its perhaps possible that one device dropped was an aerial mine rather than a normal bomb!
Consider that British bombers would carry a normal load of smallish 500lb bombs, but towards the end of the war specially adapted Lancasters were carrying the 'Grand Slam' and 'Tallboy' bombs - up to 22,000lb!
If you find a big cylinder with a brass plug with 'type 17' stamped on it - leg it!
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Martin B
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A lot of info available here
http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/bombs.html
Seems 50, 250, 500 and 1000kg iron bombs were most common, but a 2500kg beast was also available! 32inch diameter, and although I cant see any info on burst radius or effective blast area, it would have been one heck of a bang!
Be vary aware that one extremely deadly device dropped by the Luftwaffe was the SD2 'butterfly' bomb - a lightweight anti-personnel device that resembles nothing like a normal bomb - SD2 Butterfly AP, just like finding live 20mm HE projectiles, these would remain very sensitive! Hopefully, since they were so light and so sensitive, very few have survived the last 70yrs, as they tended to get stuck in hedgerows and on telephone cables!
I would add - because there is a risk of UXO on your site, it is sensible to not dig directly down to your target, but dig at the side and come at it slowly, allowing you to uncover it carefully. Its highly unlikely you'll find anything dangerous of course, but just go steady, and if your unhappy about anything you uncover, get the RLC boys out to handle it!
http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/bombs.html
Seems 50, 250, 500 and 1000kg iron bombs were most common, but a 2500kg beast was also available! 32inch diameter, and although I cant see any info on burst radius or effective blast area, it would have been one heck of a bang!
Be vary aware that one extremely deadly device dropped by the Luftwaffe was the SD2 'butterfly' bomb - a lightweight anti-personnel device that resembles nothing like a normal bomb - SD2 Butterfly AP, just like finding live 20mm HE projectiles, these would remain very sensitive! Hopefully, since they were so light and so sensitive, very few have survived the last 70yrs, as they tended to get stuck in hedgerows and on telephone cables!
I would add - because there is a risk of UXO on your site, it is sensible to not dig directly down to your target, but dig at the side and come at it slowly, allowing you to uncover it carefully. Its highly unlikely you'll find anything dangerous of course, but just go steady, and if your unhappy about anything you uncover, get the RLC boys out to handle it!
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