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.
The bomb is believed to have been buried in backfill when the city was rebuilt after the war and then recovered during later construction.
I’ve included in this video some footage from a 1942 New Zealand film demonstrating the capabilities of incendiary bombs which features a British 4lb bomb, similar to the one displayed by the museum, and some contemporary footage of the bombing of Dresden to illustrate what terrible weapons incendiaries could be.
Bibliography:
Footage:
Staff Film Reports No. 46: Dresden Bombing Footage, US Army Signal Corps’ Army Pictorial Service
Incendiary Bomb (1942), New Zealand Archives, (source)
Further information on British incendiaries:
British Explosive Ordnance – Cluster Projectiles Part 2 (source)
U.S.N.B.D. – British Bombs & Fuzes; Pyrotechnics, Detonators, Incendiary Bombs (source)
The Development of British Incendiary Bombs during the Period of the 1939-45 World War, Ministry of Supply, (source)
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The Armourers Bench 