Italian bombs closely resemble Japanese bombs in that they are usually more than one-piece in construction, assembled by screws or rivets, or welded. The Italian bomb is nor-mally filled trough the base, which is closed by a base plate attached be screews or ri-vets. Normally, the tail unit fits over the base plate and is attached to the body or the base plate by screws or rivets, or, in base of the smaller bombs by welding. The tail unit vary considerably in their design, but the tail diameter is usually the same as that of the body of the bomb to which it is attached.

Generally the bombs are of sheet steel, but some are constructed of cast aluminum alloy. In most cases filling is cast TNT, but a lager number have been found with an alternate filling of Amatol and TNT with aluminum powder. A felt pad in the nose breaks the shock of impact on the explosive filler. The bombs contain a booster, and an initiating charge in the fuze.

Normally the demolition bombs have a mild steel casing, while the armor-piercing bombs use hardened steel. The wall tickness for the 24-kg or large bombs ranges from ¼ to ½ in for light-cased and from ½ in to 1½ in for heavy-cased. This thickness varies for each bomb, increasing towards the nose.

Demolition bombs and chemical bombs, 100-kg or less, usually have provision for tail fuz-ing only. The tail fuzes are screwed into the base of the bomb. These tail fuzes usually have very long arming spindles which extend the full length of the tail. The end of the bomb tail is shaped to accommodate the arming vanes of the fuzes. In the case of 20-kg incendiary bombs, the tail unit is cut to allow the vanes to be situated half-way long the tail in order to insure limited terminal velocity for the vanes. Nose and tail fuzing is nor-mally used in demolition bombs of 160-kg or above.

Anti-personnel bombs differ from the demolition bombs in the constrution of the outer casing. In one type, the filling is enclosed in a sheet container, on the out-side of which a steel strip is wound spirally. In another type, the filling is contained in a sheetsteel case which is enclosed by a larger container. The space between the two containers is filled with steel fragments embedded in concrete. These anti-personnel bombs are known as Type F and Type Mtr., respectively.

Italian bombs are either painted or galvanized as a precaution against corrosion. The co-lorings are usually found on the nose and the body. Distinguishing colors are identified as follows:

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