Butterfly Bomb

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by amberdog45, Apr 22, 2013.

  1. amberdog45

    amberdog45 Senior Member

    I notice in the 30th Bt. Royal Berkshire war diary for '43 several references to Butterfly Bomb films. Were these films showing British troops how to disarm them or just how to avoid them when they were spotted on the ground?
     
    CL1 likes this.
  2. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    CL1 likes this.
  3. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Butterfly bombs were intended to kill and maim,bomb disposal personnel following a raid but mainly had more effect on civilians.

    There was spate of such droppings,the Grimsby area was hit hard on the night of 13/14 June 1943 when in addition to the usual loads of HT and incendiary bombs dropped on the town and port,about 1000 butterfly bombs were released.It took nearly three weeks to comb and rid the area of the butterfly bombs....casualties from the bombs amounted to 61 deaths,14 during the raid and the rest during the next 12 hours...75% of the butterfly bombs were reported to be discovered unexploded,the problem being on the "all clear",civilians then left shelter and stumbled upon them during the black out.There were cases of dogs picking up butterfly bombs, well after the raid and taking them to their masters with disastrous results.

    Schoolchildren were particular the victims of this indiscriminate anti personnel weapon and to counter this,there was instructions outlining the danger of the butterfly bomb.I remember the warnings at school regarding the butterfly bomb accompanied by the warning posters.The experience at Grimsby was used to instruct people how to deal with the weapon...there was so many tragic cases of civilians getting involved and mishandling the weapon leading in most every case to loss of life of the individual or the group involved.I have a friend who as a schoolboy experienced this raid and always speaks of the terror instilled in the minds of the civilian population on account of this weapon.

    There were further intrusions into Yorkshire,Lincolnshire and Norfolk during August 1943 when intruders dropped about 3000 butterfly bombs bombs in the vicinity of Bomber Command bases.RAF disposal teams worked up a procedure to deal with them to clear runways and dispersals. the use of the butterfly bomb continued until by October a total of nearly 12000 such bombs had been dropped.During 1943,64 RAF airfields and 19 non flying units were subject to the dropping of butterfly bombs.RAF disposal teams destroyed them in situ to keep runways,dispersals,domestic and technical areas, safe

    It was thought that troop concentrations in the south of England would be targeted during 1944 but this did not occur save for raids on military camps in Dorset.
     
    CL1, ceolredmonger and Quarterfinal like this.
  4. amberdog45

    amberdog45 Senior Member

    Thanks Tom & Harry for your explanations. They weren't half nasty! Grim statistics from June 43. I found some black & white clips on Youtube as well warning the public of the dangers. Weapons is an area I've not been drawn into yet, but with all the brilliant photographs now in the Gallery I'm getting pulled in that direction now.
     
  5. temptage

    temptage I thought it would only take a few weeks......

    I believe the last butterfly bomb found in Grimsby was back in the 90's when someone found one in their attic, open but unexploded. There were many found in the 70's and 80's but hopefully there will be no more.
     
    CL1 likes this.
  6. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  7. amberdog45

    amberdog45 Senior Member

    Thanks Temptage & CL1 for the info. It's amazing that after all these years WW2 equipment can still harm. I read in a local paper just last week that a 3 year old dog sadly died after running into a bush and puncturing a lung on metal assumed to be left over from the run way at RAF Montrose, Angus. WW2, still causing deaths!!
     
  8. BiscuitsAB

    BiscuitsAB Member

    This nasty little item was copied by the US post war as the M83 which was packed 90 to a 500 lb cluster or 24 to a 100 lb cluster. Operation appears identical to the German original.
     
  9. dave500

    dave500 Senior Member

  10. dave500

    dave500 Senior Member

    Okay, I just uploaded them to Flickr and can now copy them for display here:

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]


    All photos credit NARA.


    Dave
     
    Harry Ree, Quarterfinal and CL1 like this.
  11. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Dave,

    Excellent photographs. Thank you for posting.

    You can even see the fuse burning, so I wonder if the photographers heart beat was a Little raised.

    I know that mine would!

    Regards
    Tom
     
  12. dave500

    dave500 Senior Member

    Thanks, Tom.

    I'm sure the photographer left the scene in a run.

    If anyone wants high-res scans of these, just let me know.


    Dave
     
  13. BG2012

    BG2012 Member

    Just found this topic I never knew these kind of bombs were dropped.
     
  14. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    Last edited: Feb 5, 2023
    Juha, CL1, Quarterfinal and 1 other person like this.
  15. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

    I recall - as a child in the 1960s - being especially warned about these wretched devices, which still turned up from time-to-time. The piece attributed to Ted Burnham at:
    Memorial tribute to Hedon's World War II air raid victims - Hedon Blog
    gives an interesting and sobering insight.

    'Colonel Arthur' Robinson had a WW1 German field howitzer in his back garden - as one does - and I remember being allowed to 'play' with it on occasions.

    Afternote:

    More recollections/reminiscences/detail of other victims have featured in other local Holderness newsletters, such as:
    "Whilst waiting for my calling-up papers I got a request to help with the harvest on Mr Newton’s farm at Owstwick. Mr Newton and his foreman had been tragically killed while investigating the workings of a ‘butterfly bomb’ which were new to the area...." Adding that: ".......All the corn in the area was being cut by binders pulled by Bren gun carriers as harvesting had become a hazardous business........"
    http://www.roosparish.info/Data/Sites/20/media/The Rooster/2010/ROOSTER 182 JUNE 2010.pdf
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2023
    CL1 and Harry Ree like this.
  16. ceolredmonger

    ceolredmonger Member

    There was a Butterfly Bomb course run at Hawkhills Civil Defence Training Centre at Easingwold, N. Yorks (Still a civil emergency training establishment) which included excercises in spotting, marking and isolating them for Ordnance to deal with. This included procedures for working out distribution and accounting for all in a cannister. Devised in wartime this ran well into the Cold War as there was a belief Soviets copied the munition (it was actually the USA). I had the privilege of working with two of the course trainers, one CD (also wartime RASC), the other RAOC. Some of the dummy and deactivated bombs are in York Castle Museum.
     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2023
    CL1 likes this.
  17. redtop

    redtop Well-Known Member

    From my blog ref Stamford Hill London.

    The big thing in school playground was who found the largest shard of shrapnel on the way to school after a raid. We thought this came from German bombs but most of it was from our own ACK ACK guns (anti air craft) we still picked things up even though constantly warned about Butterfly Bombs that had maimed many children. (Little anti personnel bombs that fluttered down on little wings like sycamores.)
     
    CL1 likes this.
  18. Uncle Target

    Uncle Target Mist over Dartmoor

    A Regular occurrence at Anzio particularly in the area of the Bosco where they could lie amongst the vegetation.
    The troops called the delivery device a "Bread Basket" usually dropped at night onto their bivvy areas
    and wagon lines under cover in the trees and bushes.

    Buterfly bombs.jpg
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2023
    Juha likes this.
  19. Juha

    Juha Junior Member

    The name "Bread Basket" is interesting because Finns called the Soviet cluster bomb "Molotov's bread basket" during the Winter Wat (30 Nov 1939 - 13 Mar 1940) see:
    Molotov bread basket - Wikipedia
     
    Uncle Target likes this.
  20. Uncle Target

    Uncle Target Mist over Dartmoor

    Interesting that the name should have been used in the Bristol Blitz, by 1944 it must have become well known.
    The 67th Field Regt RA TA were raised in Worcester.
    In 1939 the Regiment was divided into a first line (67th) and Second line Home Defence Regt (119th).
    Redditch Battery was in the 119th. In 1939/ 40 a lorry load of men including Immature 18 - 20 year olds were sent to Bristol to load the Anti Aircraft Guns. They may have been later posted to the 67th as replacements.
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2023

Share This Page