Japanese Explosive Ordnance – Bombs, Bomb Fuzes, Land Mines,
Grenades, Firing Devices and Sabotage Devices |
Chapter 2 |
Japanese Bomb Fuzes |
Introduction |
The Japanese Army Air Force and the Japanese Navy Air Force each use a distictive set of fuzes. Therefore, this section is divided into two main parts, Army and Navy. |
Individual fuzes and gaines of each service are generally interchangeable for use in bombs of that service but are not interchangeable for use in ordnance of the other. |
Each group possesses certain definite indentifying characteristics: |
ARMY FUZES |
1. Arming vanes have holes for arming wires. |
2. Safety forks are usually fitted over the vanes into holes in the top of the fuze body. |
3. Most fuzes have the primer as an integral part of the fuze. |
NAVY FUZES |
1. Arming vanes do not have holes for arming wires. |
2. Safety forks of safety pins are usually inserted into the fuze body from the side. |
3. The fuze seldom has the primer as an integral part of the fuze. |
Designation: At the beginning of the war little was known about the Japanese designa-tions for their fuzes. The Allies developed a system of nomenclature consisting of three parts, (1) a capital letter, (2) a numeral, (3) a small parenthetical letter. |
1. The capital letter denotes the basic type of fuze: |
A | Nose impact fuze. | |
B | Tail impact fuze. | |
C | Long delay fuze (nose or tail). | |
D | Aerial burst fuze (nose or tail). | |
E | Protective fuze (nose or tail). |
2. The numeral indicates the approximate order of recovery by the Allied forces of diffe-rent basic designs of fuzes within the general classification of A, B, C, D, or E. |
3. The small letter in parentheses indicates wheter the fuze is the first, second, etc. ex-ample of a basic design. The difference between A-2 (a) and A-2 (b) is roughly equiva-lent to the difference between modifications of a certain mark of U.S. Navy ordnance. |
The Allied system of designations makes no distinction between Japanese Army and Ja-panese Navy fuzes. |
Wherever possible, the Japanese designation and Allied designation appear in the title. If no Japanese designation is given it indicates that the Japanese had no separate designa-tion for this fuze. |