The SB 2500 (Spezialbombe) was a
luftmine or aerial mine in English used by the
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
History
The SB series of bombs were designed to be high-capacity bombs that were intended to create the largest lateral blast effect on detonation. This was in contrast to most other German bombs, which were either
armor-piercing
Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour.
From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many warsh ...
,
cluster bombs
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicl ...
,
fragmentation or
incendiaries
Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, th ...
. Since the SB series was not designed to pierce armor or to create fragments, the casing of the series was very light, and the ratio of charge to weight was high at 65%, while the majority of
general-purpose bombs were up to 50%.
Design
The SB 2500 was constructed of three parts; a threaded cast steel nose plug, a welded sheet steel center section, and a welded sheet steel tail cone with four alloy tail fins. The SB 2500 was filled through the nose and the tail cone was hollow to increase the bombs charge to weight ratio. There were two transverse fuze pockets; the forward pocket housed the anti-break-up fuze and the rear pocket was for a normal impact fuze. The SB 2500 was fitted with an anti-breakup rod which extended from the nose plug to the forward fuse pocket, which on impact crushed the impact fuze and detonated the bomb. A central exploder tube also ran through the center of the bomb from the forward fuze pocket to the tail. The SB 2500 was suspended horizontally by reinforced H-type lugs. The SB 2500 was filled with either
Amatol or ''Trialen 105''. Trialen 105 was a mixture of 15%
RDX
RDX (abbreviation of "Research Department eXplosive") or hexogen, among other names, is an organic compound with the formula (O2N2CH2)3. It is a white solid without smell or taste, widely used as an explosive. Chemically, it is classified as a ...
, 70%
TNT
Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
and 15%
aluminum powder
Aluminium powder is powdered aluminium.
This was originally produced by mechanical means using a stamp mill to create flakes. Subsequently, a process of spraying molten aluminium to create a powder of droplets was developed by E. J. Hall in the ...
. Due to its thin case and powerful explosives, the SB 2500 was vulnerable to enemy gunfire.
See also
*
References
External links
{{WWIIGermanAerialWeapons
World War II aerial bombs of Germany