wooden bombs

Excellent; thanks for the story.

I assume the wooden bombs were for practice? The only other reasons I can think of is something to do with anti-magnetic or that wood was more available than metal.

I just bought two bombs in the States where the were produced in large quantities between 1936 and 1945 by 'Triumph Explosives Inc, Maryland !! These are so called smoke bombs but eyewitnesses in France did actually recognize them (70 years after the facts).
In the attachment you'll find thé bomb from the Airborne Museum in Sainte Mère l'Eglise, Normandy and also a good picture from a "smoke bomb".
Kind regards
Jean

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Your second image looks to be a Flame Float.

Following impact after being dropped from an aircraft over the sea, the filling (usually calcium phosphide) would react with the water and produce a flame. The wooden body helped it to float and the metal nose ensured that it it adopted a vertical position with the tail UP. The flame issued from the tail end.

Used for navigational fixes and - allegedly - to illuminate an area of the sea around it.

PETERTHEEATER;42053 wrote:

dewaerheid's second image looks to be a Flame Float. Used for navigational fixes...

Excellent guys - I've always assumed these things looked like a miniature raft.

I read that the pilot would maintain a 'straight' course and the rear gunner would keep an eye on the float in the sea, which would give an estimate of 'drift'. (Something like that.)

Graham

Exactly right Carnaby. Used at night to estimate drift rates and judge windspeed and direction. There were various types but all fuelled with carbide. The RAF dropped them from Flare Chutes and the USAAF from bomb carriers. Dependent on airspeed they could even be chucked through a door or gun-port.

Flare Chute release could be operated by the man who loaded it - usually on order of the pilot - or by the pilot from the cockpit so that he could 'time' the release to his requirement.

The view of Snopes is not very serious. I wrote them several times to tell them that I had found 163 cases on this story. No answer ... A German pilot veteran of WW2 who witnessed a drop of wooden bombs in 1943 send "a message in a bottle" to find the american or english pilot who threw wooden bombs on his head!! Look at
PA Courouble
Author of "The Riddle of wooden bombs"

There is a wooden torpedo ondisplay at Yeovilton, meant to take a photo of it last week but got distracted by something else and forgot!

Probably a 'recoverable' RN practice torpedo or an instructional item.