Examining an Incendiary Bomb Dropped on Dresden

At We Have Ways Festival 2022 I ran into friends from the Dunkirk 1940 Museum and they were displaying an interesting piece - a British 4lb Incendiary Bomb which had reportedly been dropped on Dresden in February 1945.
Check out the museum's channel @Dunkirk-nu2oi and their website they have lots of interesting objects like this one: dunkirk1940.org/
Thank you to @RMMilitaryHistory for his camera work on this one and be sure to check out our accompanying article for this video here - armourersbench.com/2022/08/14...
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[@zoiders]

On the subject of penetrating roof tiles - on the night of the Dresden Raid the total RAF force of 769 aircraft was split in two. The first "stream" dropped about 60% high explosives to crack open buildings and turn the contents and timber into fuel, the HE also broke open gas mains and destroyed water mains for fire fighting. The sprinkling of incendiary bombs then set light to it and completed the combustion triangle. No penetration was required as the contents of the buildings were already turned into potential bonfires and gas was leaking everywhere. Two RAF "streams" hit Dresden that night. Each one took exactly 15 minutes. The second one was aimed at killing rescuers. Seeing the scale and success of the first firestorm the returning Pathfinders moved the drop point in order to expand the borders of the inferno and catch up with the column of fleeing civilians. It was a dirty business and we asked a lot of the young men tasked with doing it.

[@joemorganeatmyshortschannel]

i think alot of people forget our grandparents generation had to deal with this

[@mrd7067]

This stuff still gets cleared by bomb disposal teams all over germany. Ongoing genocide and warcrimes that were never accepted, properly investigated or prosecuted. For the UK it started in the 1920s although the hague convention forbade and still forbids this. If you are interested in this read the hague convention and the following: Trenchard-Doktrin Area Bombing Directive Butt Report Dehousing Paper

[@zoiders]

@@mrd7067 I think you need to stop making Nazi Germany out to be the victim of "genocide" fella.

[@stepbruv8780]

Yea my granddaddy blown up your Opa house

[@ptonpc]

What gets me is the thought & effort put into making devices like these. The design, the tooling, the manufacture etc. All to destroy.

[@mrd7067]

For the UK it started in the 1920s although the hague convention forbade and still forbids this. If you are interested in this read the hague convention and the following: Trenchard-Doktrin Area Bombing Directive Butt Report Dehousing Paper

[@andrewallen9993]

All that work by the Germans handed to the British on a plate by the polish secret service handing over duds the Luftwaffe had dropped on Warsaw.

[@friedrichfriedlich6501]

Great Video! Cool to see how these things work. I'm living in Dresden for almost all my life and I have to say that the Russians didn't build Dresden up as a medieval-fairytale-dreamland-as-before after the war. They did the opposite thing. After the war Dresden was built up as a communist model City, which means a lot of plain concrete everywhere and nothing of the baroque style Dresden ist famous for today. The new administration of Dresden (which was not made up of Russians by the way) had a city without any churches and palaces in mind when they decided what should be built. They wanted a city for and from the people. They even let the ruins of the Frauenkirche (a big church in Dresden) there without bulldozing anything of it away. The ruin was a memorial to the horrors of war. A lot of the baroque Style houses (like the Frauenkirche) where (re)built after the reunification of Germany in the nineties an early 2000s. I'm born in 1997 and I can remember places where new baroque Houses were built. There is actually a small Russian-orthodox church in Dresden where you can see the outline of such an incendiary Bomb on the floor. The bomb burned its outline into the floor but was, allegedly, removed by one of the Priests there, who burned his hands badly as he carried the Bomb outside with his bare hands. The Bomb actually smashed a church window and flew in that way. The church survived the bombing and wasn't hit beyond that one Bomb. I went to that church when I was in school and the Priests told us this story, so maybe it's not entirely true. Sometimes I am sad that I can't see the "old" Dresden as it was before the Bombing, because a lot of cool buildings were destroyed and weren't built up again because something else was built in those spaces (like soviet style concrete housing) and stays there today. but I am also really happy about the city I am living in (abandoned soviet concrete houses are lovely places for raves). Its just really strange for me that there are two "versions" of this city and I never get to see the other one. And that almost all houses which look old are actually quite new is also a bit strange. (sorry for any weird spelling and grammar, I'm not a native speaker)

[@zopEnglandzip]

@@joebiggs135 the survivor accounts are so horrific the material losses seem irrelevant.

[@EpicThe112]

German Counterparts were known as AB1000 (Incendiary Cluster Bomb) and Flamm SC250. This was said on a John Weal book about the Ju-88 Western Front. Same book mentioned Ju-88s made up half of the force that attacked Coventry

[@RMMilitaryHistory]

Great video mate, I'm just glad my camera work turned out okay!

[@TheArmourersBench]

Appreciate your steady hands mate haha

[@RMMilitaryHistory]

@@TheArmourersBench my pleasure 😍

[@JimmySailor]

US Bomber Channel has a great video about the American version’s use on Japan. The American version was similar in shape and arming, but had a jellied gasoline payload and the black power expulsion ejector. Instead of magnesium heat it was basically a self contained flame thrower which was activated on a timer after sensing impact through a roof. Takeaway being, even if it fell in the street in front of a building it stood a good chance of destroying it. The American version seems to have cribbed the basic arrangement and arming. Very cool.

[@TheArmourersBench]

Must check that out.

[@scrappydoo7887]

I love incendiaries. They are very interesting in their simplicity and effectiveness

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

To see the awful effects of these weapons, watch the documentary Hellstorm.

[@coqimsure156]

Cooked people in basements like they were in an oven. Complete war crime, okay when we do it of course.

[@megs4193]

Sorry this is 9 months late, and apparently youtube removed my comment ??? I just finished watching Hellstorm, 7minutes and 30seconds in and I was in tears, and it just got worse and worse, I'm exhausted but thank you...because even though I'm from Tasmania Australia the world needs to be taught about this, I wouldn't touch one of those things after seeing what I've just seen 💔💔💔🙏🕊🤍🕊✌️😞.

[@thomaslthomas1506]

Simple but highly destructive.

[@johncoleman6927]

Wait did they just recommend to put out a magnesium fire with water?

[@TheArmourersBench]

Splash it!

[@VenturiLife]

All part of the fun.

[@xntumrfo9ivrnwf]

If I didn't know any better, I would have said that you sound exactly like Matt from Scholagladiatoria

[@TheArmourersBench]

I do enjoy his videos.

[@MAHONEY1940]

Wind noise spoils a good video.

[@TheArmourersBench]

Can't be helped. Could have been worse. Thanks for watching

[@jfk1856]

Turn on subtitles and you're fine

[@georgeferguson7114]

Awful yet simple weapon. The Tokyo firebombing raids created more damage and casualties than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No need for a Norden bombsight as accuracy was not an issue.

[@666Blaine]

I believe the US used napalm for firebombing.

[@zigwil153]

Is it true the convection effect suffocated people to death?

[@TheArmourersBench]

I believe so yes.

[@islandblind]

More likely it was carbon monoxide poisoning.

[@davidgenie-ci5zl]

It is also true that the german marched naked, shaven head children into gas chambers.

[@R.Sole88109]

No wonder Gerry whinged getting that shit dropped on them. Be grateful it wasn't bomber loads of Willie Pete. Another interesting episode, cheers for filming it mate.👍🏻🍻

[@TheArmourersBench]

Thanks for watching!

[@Oldbmwr100rs]

The Germans had no right to complain after what they did to Coventry, London and other cities, especially going after residential areas rather than industrial ones. They invented firebombing as a terror weapon, but didn't like it coming back on them, scratch a sadist and find a coward.

[@R.Sole88109]

@@Oldbmwr100rs Exactly, Big Boys Rules.

[@IEatLeptons]

Wow and what the fuck

[@pernykvist3442]

Now Russia using same stuff

[@xusmico187]

audio sucks...

[@TheArmourersBench]

Couldn't he helped. Thanks for watching

[@jfk1856]

Algorithm

[@johnadm3479]

That was war crime

[@lievenvanlint7717]

Great film! Very interesting. Dresden was rebuilt after the war by the (east) germans and later finished under reunited Germany. Russia (Soviet Union) had nothing to do with the rebuilding of Dresden. Please correct your video.

[@TheArmourersBench]

Glad you found it interesting. Thanks for watching.

[@doskraut]

The US should pay for the cleanup they made.

[@trevorcoyle517]

War Crime, but it never gets called that because “we were the good guys, it had to be done”.

[@Reactordrone]

Agreements don't work if only one side abides by them. After German incendiary use it invited a response in kind.

[@chynabad9804]

@@Reactordrone >germans made me burn civilians in the thousands!

[@zoiders]

It did have to be done. Dresden had to burn. I don't think you understand just how complicit in the Nazi regime ordinary Germans were. Either that or you are just another closet Nazi making excuses.

[@mrd7067]

@@Reactordrone Yoo do realise that the uk carpet bombed german cities for about a year in defiance of the hague convention when germany started to bomb the UK and even then only targeted military targets in the beginning?!

[@BigMek456]

@@Reactordrone Britain bombed German cities first, so its the other way around

[@johncox2865]

Audio sucks

[@TheArmourersBench]

If only I had the money for lapel mics. Thanks for watching.

[@MikeHunt-rw4gf]

Algorithm.

[@dragonstormdipro1013]

Dresden was not a war crime. It was a highly industrial city and a huge railway junction. It had to fall. Without the bombing it had to be taken block by block by the Russians which would have been devastating for all sides. It was the Soviets who requested for the bombing run after their incredibly costly campaign of Budapest. And they were also the one who conveniently wiped their hands about their role afterwards. Heck, the whole "Dresden was warcrime" was a Soviet campaign to boost solidarity between East Germans and Russians regarding how eeevillll western allies were (make no mistake, West is equally guilty for demonizing and downplaying Soviet efforts, war has no happy ending)

[@blueband8114]

Yes, but could have targeted the railway junctions with conventional bombs, rather than incendiary carpet bomb. That, is known to cause mass civilian death and destruction. Eg a war crime.

[@mrd7067]

The whole bomb war, as it was planned and conducted by the uk and then the US was a warcrime and every one who took part in it a warcriminal by international law. Civilians were delibertly targeted. Orders stating this have been declassified by now. Just read the hague convention. It gets removed when i post text passages of it. Also be aware that what is now known as "the blitz" in the uk was a reaction to a about a year long bombing campain on german cities, especially population centers. One of the first uk bomb runs was on a german military hospital. Just a small part in the ongoing genocide. f you are interested in this read the hague convention and the following: Trenchard-Doktrin Area Bombing Directive Butt Report Dehousing Paper

[@dragonstormdipro1013]

@@mrd7067 Ok where can I read them?

[@Al-sg7kr]

nісе wаr crimе aроlogia

[@trevorcoyle517]

They still firebombed an entire city of civilians

[@Je3perscre3pers]

Its about time we talk about the war crimes of of the allies

[@davidgenie-ci5zl]

Cant hear the guy. horrible audio.

[@willboudreau1187]

terrible sound quality. skip and move on.

[@TheArmourersBench]

Thanks for watching.