Concrete bomb
Concrete bombs are aerial bombs that consist entirely or to a substantial extent of concrete . These can be either pure exercise bombs or operational bombs with or without explosives.
Exercise bombs are used to train the pilots and to test the steering technique - due to the lack of an explosive effect, only a small crater is created, which is why the point of impact can be precisely determined. In addition, exercise bombs can also generate smoke and the like. Ä. Included in order to improve the observability. Due to the lack of explosive effect, pure concrete bombs cause less damage to the training or test area.
Used by Germany in World War II
Germany used both massive concrete bombs and explosive concrete-coated bombs during World War II .
Exercise bombs
On the one hand, practice bombs such as the ZC 50 or the ZC 250 were made of concrete in order to produce a cheap dropping body for one-time use, but which had the same ballistic properties as the actual (explosive) bomb. For better observation, such bombs were either fitted with glass ampoules that broke when the bomb hit the target area and released a liquid that generated a cloud of smoke (e.g. chlorosulfonic acid ) or, during night operations, with a flare that showed the trajectory of the bomb and the point of impact made visible.
Operational bombs
Concrete bombs were also used as operational ammunition by the German side. These had a concrete jacket into which on the one hand steel wires as reinforcement to increase strength, and furthermore steel bodies up to one centimeter in size, which functioned as preformed splinters. An explosive charge was worked into this bomb body, which was detonated when the bomb hit. As a result of the detonation, the concrete casing was dismantled and the steel splinters hurled away at high speed.
In contrast to other makeshift weapons such as mines made of concrete , glass , or plywood, hand grenades made of concrete or glass, etc., which were manufactured and used by the German side towards the end of the war due to a lack of raw materials, concrete bombs such as the SC 10 dw, the SBe 50 or the SBe were used 250 already used by the German Air Force at the beginning of the Second World War. However, the 50 and 250 kg concrete bombs in particular had a significantly lower proportion of explosives than the comparable fragmentation bombs with a steel shell, so that they were no longer used later.
| designation | Weight (kg) | Diameter (mm) | Length (mm) | Explosives (kg) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SC 10 dw | 10 | 86 | 545 | 0.9 |
| SBe 50 | 60 | 200 | 1100 | 3 to 5.4 |
| SBe 250 | 229 | 370 | 1637 | 49 |
Modern laser-guided concrete bombs
Concrete bombs without explosives used in combat only work through their kinetic energy . Since the radius of destruction is narrowly limited due to the lack of an explosive effect, today's concrete bombs have laser guidance to hit the target. They are mainly used against armored vehicles and artillery positions in populated areas in order to avoid collateral damage .
More recently, laser-guided concrete bombs were used in the 2nd Gulf War and the Libyan Civil War (2011) .
See also
swell
- Air Force Service Regulations L. Dv. 4200 "The German dropping ammunition"
- German dropping ammunition from World War II
Individual evidence
- ↑ US Wields Defter Weapon Against Iraq: Concrete Bomb , The New York Times , October 7, 1989 (accessed July 21, 2016)
- ↑ France Dropping Concrete Bombs In Libya at www.defensetech.org (accessed July 21, 2016)
literature
- Wolfgang Thamm: Air bombs. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, approx. 300 pages, ISBN 3-7637-6228-0
- Wolfgang Fleischer: Deutsche Abwurfmunition Motorbuchverlag, 290 pages, ISBN 3-613-02286-9
- Karl R. Pawlas: Munitions-Lexikon, Vol. 3: Deutsche Bomben Journal-Verl. Schwend GmbH, 334 pages