RAF smoke bomb/practice bomb/flare

Perhaps an Email to the B.D.S. H.Q. would help, they certainly were helpfull when I WAS A cOPPER, AND SOME FARMER PLOUGHED UP BOMBS THAT HAD MISSED THE RANGE AND FALLEN ON SURROUNDING FARMLAND, ALSO APPLIED WHEN BOMBS, (lIVE) WERE DREDGED UP BY FISHERMEN IN THEIR NETS, IN THE WASH.
jIM’

LinCOln .7

COmp oN bLInK

Hi Andy,

we have a flare/photoflash in the Museum collection and those items dont look like the example we have (cf also internal pics of PA474 in Haynes Lanc Manual) – look more like larger (ie non hex) incendiaries to me

TT

Thanks TT.

I am thinking more the non-hexagonal incendiary myself, too.

I saw the RAFM re-print of the AP on bombs today at the Aviation Bookshop in Tunbridge Wells. I picked it up and looked at it, and thought…why would this be useful right now? Then put it back on the shelf. Doh! Mind you, at £65.00 it might have been what expunged all rational thought from my brain.

If anyone can confirm this is/is not the back end of some piece of ordnance with three fin-stays, I’d be grateful.

Hi. I know yrs ago, the practice smoke bombs used on the range near me were about 2 feet in length and 7 to 8 inches in dia, IIRC, they were painted blue, I know this may not help in what you are looking for at this moment in time, but may to somewon else at a later day.
Good hunting.
Jim.

Lincoln .7

Hi Andy,

we have a flare/photoflash in the Museum collection and those items dont look like the example we have (cf also internal pics of PA474 in Haynes Lanc Manual) – look more like larger (ie non hex) incendiaries to me

TT

Bump!

Anyone?

Here is a photo of the objects in question.

Any ideas?

Both red, although one had traces of yellowish paint, too.

Thank you very much for that extensive and informative response, which is certainly most useful indeed!

Reason for the question was that some conical cylinders, probably 18 inches or so long and with a diameter of about six or seven inches, turned up on a recent Lancaster dig. They seem to have been reburied in the crater after all else had been dug out in 1944/45. Were they reburied because they were ordnance – or just looked like it?

The objects were thin steel bodied, painted red, and had a tube down the centre. After much puzzling over what they were the idea of engine fire extinguishers was put forward, or at least some kind of extinguishing agent delivery system for engine bays. But…..! Well, I remain unconvinced after thinking about it a great deal. The only extinguishers I have seen have been the copper cylinder type and I am quite familiar with them and what they look like. To an extent, the objects found looked a bit like the 25lb tail cone assemblies shown above.

Anyone got any other ideas? I don’t have photos, but will try to get some.

There is “Colour and Markings” info at the top left of the description sheets, some of the section headers with the pics also talk about colour.

Andy,

Will slap up a few diagrams and info sheets, courtesy of US Navy, of all people.

Only things which seem to have significant amounts of red are marine flares and markers, some other ordnance types had red bands around the body.

Cluster projectiles seem to have been red overall, but they were not, ah, small.

You might be after old-style 25lb incendiary bombs, listed as obsolete at the time this file was put together.