The SC 500 was a ''Sprengbombe Cylindrisch'' ("cylindrical explosive bomb") family of 500 kg weight

general-purpose bomb A general-purpose bomb is an air-dropped bomb intended as a compromise between blast damage, penetration, and fragmentation in explosive effect. They are designed to be effective against enemy troops, vehicles, and buildings. Characteristics ...

s used by the

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Design

The bombs had three-piece drawn steel bodies with a heavy machined nose cap for armor penetration. At the other end was a base plate, just forward of which the magnesium alloy tail was tack-welded onto the body, and also bolted to the tail attachment brace. The bomb was usually filled with a mixture of 40%

amatol Amatol is a highly explosive material made from a mixture of TNT and ammonium nitrate. The British name originates from the words ammonium and toluene (the precursor of TNT). Similar mixtures (one part dinitronaphthalene and seven parts a ...

and 60%

Trotyl Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and helps ...

, but when used as an anti-shipping bomb it was filled with ''

Trialen Trialen was an explosive developed in Germany. It was used during World War II in the V-1 flying bomb and Arado E.377 glide bomb, among other weapons, as an enhanced blast explosive. Trialen was the German equivalent of the British explosive Torpex ...

105'', a mixture of 15%

hexogen RDX (Research Department Explosive or Royal Demolition Explosive) or hexogen, among other names, is an organic compound with the formula (CH2N2O2)3. It is white, odorless, and tasteless, widely used as an explosive. Chemically, it is classified ...

, 70%

and 15%

aluminium 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 ...

. Around the nose of the bomb could be fitted an optional ''kopfring'' - a metal ring, triangular in cross section, designed to prevent ground penetration or to stop forward

momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (: momenta or momentums; more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. ...

when hitting water (to prevent the bomb from skipping off the water). The bomb could also be fitted with a ''Stabo Spike'' which was a device that prevented the bomb from burying itself in the ground before detonation to increase its anti-personnel effectiveness (similar to the US " Daisy Cutter" fuse). The bomb was attached to the aircraft horizontally by an H-type suspension lug. It could be horizontally suspended in a

bomb bay The bomb bay or weapons bay on some military aircraft is a compartment to carry bombs, usually in the aircraft's fuselage, with "bomb bay doors" which open at the bottom. The bomb bay doors are opened and the bombs are dropped when over the ...

or horizontally mounted on a wing or fuselage

hardpoint A hardpoint is an attachment location on a structural frame designed to transfer force and carry an external or internal structural load, load. The term is usually used to refer to the mounting points (more formally known as a weapon station o ...

Post war ordnance

On 20 February 2024 an unexploded SC 500 was found in a garden in Plymouth, England during building work; the area was evacuated for three days. The bomb was eventually removed and detonated at sea. On 15 August 2024 an SC 500 was found on a building site on the Rivenwood housing development in Newtownards, County Down. The bomb was destroyed in a controlled explosion five days later. SC500 bomb discovery (2025) On the weekend of 22 March 2025, a World War II-era SC500 bomb was discovered in the River Ure, between Bishop Monkton and Newby Hall in Ripon, North Yorkshire, England. The unexploded ordnance was safely detonated in situ on Wednesday 26 March 2025 by a bomb disposal team from Glasgow.

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=October 2019 World War II aerial bombs of Germany