BOMBS USED IN

FUNCTIONING

ARMED CONDITION

ARMING TIME

FUZES USED WITH

VANE SPAN

MAX. BODY DIAMETER

OVERALL LENGTH

COLOR

DESCRIPTION:

The vanes and vane cap are of unpainted steel with the 5 vanes cut out of one piece of sheet steel and soldered onto the cap. In the top of the cap is a small stop pin which hits a stop pin on the fuze body and prevents the cap from being screwed down too tightly. The vane cap threads all the way down the fuze body, which is made of brass. In the upper part of the body is a sheet metal diaphragm with a needle striker soldered to its center. This rests on a shoulder in the fuze body and is covered by a sheet steel retaining disc in which 7 holes are drilled to allow air pressure. The retaining disc in this fuze is staked in. In the lower fuze body is a detonator shutter moving in a chamber at right angles to the striker. In the unarmed position the shutter is out of line, with the detonator lined up under a safety flash hole. On one end of the shutter is the shutter spring and on the other a detent which holds the shutter out of line. The detent rests in a hole that leads to the outside and is held in the shutter chamber by a steel clip which rests in a longitudinal groove along the outside of the threaded fuze body. This clip is pivoted on its lower end and there is continual pressure exerted on it by the detent which, in turn is being forced out by the shutter and shutter spring. Be-low the detonator is a flash channel leading to the magazine. Around the lower fuze body is a leather securing ring and a locking ring.

OPERATION:

When the bomb is dropped from the plane the safety wire is pulled out and the vanes and vane cap are free to rotate. After about 11 revolutions of the vanes, the vane cap releases the steel clip in the fuze body, allowing the clip to be pivoted down by the detent under pressure of the shutter and shutter spring. The detent is thus for-ced out of the fuze, and the shutter is allowed to align itself with the striker.

REMARKS:

This fuze is designed to give aerial burst functioning on all but the first bomb of a stick or cluster. The first bomb explodes on impact, and blast pressure from its explos-ion snaps the diaphragm of the fuze in the bomb next above it. Blast pressure from the explosion of the second bomb fires the third, etc., giving a "stepped" explosion effect to the whole stick or cluster.