USE

General Purpose bombs are heavy-cased bombs ranging in weight from 40 lb. to 4000 lb. The smal-ler bombs are used mainly as anti-personel bombs, while the larger once are used for general bom-bardment purpose.

FUZING

The earlier marks of the bombs are fitted with central tubes to take the explodering components, but later marks are fitted with exploder containers at the nose end or at the nose and tail ends. Bombs with central tubes or with exploder contai-ners at each end may be fuzed at both ends or at either end, depending on the operational require-ments. Bombs fu zed at the nose only are fitted with instantaneous detonators, while bombs fuzed at the tail are usually fitted with delay detonators. If bombs are fuzed at both the nose and the tail with instantaneous detonators, the nose assembly will function first, due to be direct action of the nose pistol. The general practice is th ship General Purpose bombs with a tail pistol in place, but with-out detonators, altering the fuzing as may be desi-red prior to loading the bombs on the plane.

CHARACTERISTICS

Common characteristics of British General Purpose bombs include the following: streamlined shape; dark green color with one-half inch red band at the nose and one inch light green band with the filler stencilled on; cast in one piece; male base plate; tail unit that clips on for bombs under 1000 lb; tail unit secured by wing bolts for bombs 1000 lb. and over; T.N.T., Amatol or R.D.X./T.N.T. main filling; charge/weight ratio of approximately thirty per cent; and transit bases to facilitate handling having the same diameter as the maxi-mum diameter of the bomb.