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pete.mason:

--- Quote from: mmitch on October 26, 2020, 10:14:38 AM ---A. It was in a book from the library about bomb disposal in WW2 that the title now escapes me!
mmitch.

--- End quote ---
The 2 classics were by Maj Bill Hartley -Unexploded Bomb & Highly Explosive, published in the 1950s,

MartinR:
I tried a couple of Internet searches on "sulphuric acid bomb disposal" and "sulphuric acid V1 fuse" but nothing relevant came up.

Cosmo Smallpiece:
The childish pyromaniac in me absolutely loves these stories. Thanks guys.


Bashing bombs etc to make them go off is stark contrast to the EOD guys trying to avoid that scenario. Came across tales of defusing enemy bombs in wartime, rather than just safe detonation, because a type of fuse was required for teaching purposes!


I've stopped looking now, but the nearest I could find to acid on a V1 fuse, was the use of acetone to dissolve (?) the explosive around the fuse pocket. This was a V1 landing in Sandhurst, Kent.


Curiously, some of those V1 that crashed intact were found to have the charges that initiated the steep dive still intact. These ones did come down after expiring their fuel and just glided down.

pete.mason:

--- Quote from: Cosmo Smallpiece on October 26, 2020, 04:48:46 PM ---When and where was this? Sounds like a scene from Dad's Army! 😂

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Late '70s, East coast & Welsh coast ranges.

grandarog:
Cosmo ,
          You would be amazed at some of the tricks we used to get up to concerning demolition in the services.  A standard method of disposal for small ordnance was dig a hole insert said whatever in varying amounts ,empty the contents of a couple of starter cartridges or flares on top .Cover hole with a steel plate, leaving a gap at edge. Light a Portfire ignitor and chuck it in before making a walk away retreat to cover.. Fierce burn would then ignite and destroy what ever. Great fun if there were signal cartridges in the burn .Often the plate would be blown to one side and Very lights of all colours would go up. This was OK so long as the Tower had been told demo was occurring. If not Satco was not amused.
 Not heard or come acrossof the potshot method but have thrown rocks at 8 1/2 lb.practice  smoke or flame bombs to set them off on the beach. Anything bigger like Marine Markers, Depth Charges or other shells etc were manhandled onto the back of our Bantam truck and recovered to base.
 Destroying a large quantity of Hawker Hunter Starter Cartridges in Malta once . The system was to remove the cruciform charge and deposit in a 40 gallon oil drum until full. The empty case was then fired by holding the negative wire of a 12v batterry on the case and touching the cap with the live wire.The brass case was the boxed up labelled Safe ,Free from Explosives and destined to the Station Scrap yard On one occasion some of the charges in the barrel must have been corrupted as suddenly the whole lot blew out like Vesuvius giving a spectacular display .(Luckily didn't reach where we were sheltering behind a corrugated iron screen.)
Another highly illegal trick we used to pull in the Hunting Season. As the Maltese in those days would shoot at any migratory birds that game in range was to drop Chipmunk Starter Cartridges at the side of goat tracks. They were 12 Bore calibre and black so looked just like a Russian 12 Bore ShotGun Cartridge.  Just after daybreak when the daily barrage started we would laugh when in among all the bangs you heard a woosh like a rocket taking off. We knew we had caught another mug and saved a sparrow. Im'e sure Pete can tell you a few more tales. :) :)

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