HISTORY
The first dropping of a bomb from an aircraft in combat happened on November 1, 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War. During fighting between Italy and forces loyal to the Turkish, Ottoman Empire in Libya, Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti dropped four 1.5kg bombs on Ain Zara, a town just east of Tripoli, pulling the pins with his teeth.
Science fiction writer H.G. Wells was the first person to use the phrase "atomic bomb" in his 1914 novel The World Set Free. The book is based on a prediction of a more destructive and uncontrollable sort of weapon than the world has yet seen. He wrote:
"Never before in the history of warfare had there been a continuing explosive; indeed, up to the middle of the twentieth century the only explosives known were combustibles whose explosiveness was due entirely to their instantaneousness; and these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men who used them."
In 1919, posing for publicity shots, silent movie star Harold Lloyd lost a finger and thumb when the prop ‘bomb’ he was holding exploded. It had been thought the prop was designed just to emit smoke.
A rabbit was the only casualty of the first bomb in World War II to fall on British soil.
The term Molotov cocktail was coined by the Finns during the 1939-40 Winter War. Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov claimed that bombs used on the Finnish was humanitarian aid, so Finns started calling them "Molotov bread baskets". When using incendiaries to counter Soviet tanks, they called them "a drink to go with the food."
James Isbister was the first person killed in a German bombing raid on the United Kingdom during World War II. He died during a raid on Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands on March 16, 1940.
During World War II, the very first bomb dropped on Berlin by the Allies killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
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| A raid by the 8th Air Force on the Focke Wulf factory at Marienburg, Germany (1943). |
A blockbuster was a bomb used in World War II in air raids in Germany. It could destroy buildings in one explosion. Now, thankfully, the most common blockbusters are films and novels so powerful that in slang terms they ‘blow your mind’.
Bat bombs were an experimental World War II weapon developed by the United States. The bomb consisted of large bomb casings that would open above cities and release bats with small, timed incendiary bombs. The bats would find somewhere to roost, and the Japanese city that was the intended target would burn down. Despite promising results, after $2 million dollars in research development was felt to be too slow and the Bat Bob was abandoned in favor of the atomic bomb.
Mary Babnik Brown donated her hair during World War II and later received a personal letter of thanks from Ronald Reagan (who had a clerical job with the military during the war). He explained that her hair had been the perfect fit for a complex device used by military aircraft to accurately drop bombs called a Norden sight. Both wire and spider silk had been used beforehand, and neither worked as well.
Hitler addressed his Reichstag on May 4, 1941 in a 72-minute speech in which he referred to night bombing. "Churchill," he said, "is determined to continue this kind of warfare. We, also, are resolved to continue, and are prepared to drop 100 bombs for each British bomb until Britain gets rid of this criminal and his methods."
Hitler addressed his Reichstag on May 4, 1941 in a 72-minute speech in which he referred to night bombing. "Churchill," he said, "is determined to continue this kind of warfare. We, also, are resolved to continue, and are prepared to drop 100 bombs for each British bomb until Britain gets rid of this criminal and his methods."
On September 9, 1942, a Japanese Yokosuka E14Y Glen floatplane, launched from a Japanese submarine, successfully dropped two incendiary bombs in Oregon hoping to start a forest fire. It was the first time the continental United States was bombed by an enemy aircraft.
Engineer Barnes Wallis developed the ‘bouncing bomb’ by skipping marbles across a water tub in his back garden. The bombs were used on May 16-17, 1943 in the Dambusters Raid - a mission to destroy three dams that were vital to German industry.
The first of more than 9,000 German V1 flying bombs, nicknamed doodlebugs, was fired on June 13, 1944. It struck London next to the railway bridge on Grove Road, Mile End and eight civilians were killed in the blast. 9,000 doodlebugs were fired at Britain during the latter stages of World War II, killing more than 6,000 people and injuring more than 18,000.
The flammable liquid napalm was developed in 1942 in a secret laboratory at Harvard University, by a team led by chemist Louis Fieser. Napalm incendiary bombs were dropped on July 17, 1944 for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near Saint-Lô, France.
A military psychology tactic by the Nazis in late World War II was to attach whistles onto bombs. As the bombs fell, they made the terrifying decrescendo whistling sound we think of today. The same sound is often dubbed over every type of bomb in movies and cartoons, despite only being used on a few specific bombs.
Ukrainian Ivan Kharchenko personally defused more than 1,500 bombs weighing more than 500 kilograms (1,100 lbs) each and 25,000 other explosive objects during the battles of Stalingrad and Kiev. After World War II, he disarmed 16,000 more unexploded bombs.
Engineer Barnes Wallis developed the ‘bouncing bomb’ by skipping marbles across a water tub in his back garden. The bombs were used on May 16-17, 1943 in the Dambusters Raid - a mission to destroy three dams that were vital to German industry.
The first of more than 9,000 German V1 flying bombs, nicknamed doodlebugs, was fired on June 13, 1944. It struck London next to the railway bridge on Grove Road, Mile End and eight civilians were killed in the blast. 9,000 doodlebugs were fired at Britain during the latter stages of World War II, killing more than 6,000 people and injuring more than 18,000.
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| A V-1 on display in Musée de l'Armée |
The flammable liquid napalm was developed in 1942 in a secret laboratory at Harvard University, by a team led by chemist Louis Fieser. Napalm incendiary bombs were dropped on July 17, 1944 for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near Saint-Lô, France.
A military psychology tactic by the Nazis in late World War II was to attach whistles onto bombs. As the bombs fell, they made the terrifying decrescendo whistling sound we think of today. The same sound is often dubbed over every type of bomb in movies and cartoons, despite only being used on a few specific bombs.
Ukrainian Ivan Kharchenko personally defused more than 1,500 bombs weighing more than 500 kilograms (1,100 lbs) each and 25,000 other explosive objects during the battles of Stalingrad and Kiev. After World War II, he disarmed 16,000 more unexploded bombs.
The Hiroshima atom bomb explosion was generated by matter weighing no more than a paper clip.
The name of the B-29 Bomber that dropped the Atom Bomb on Nagasaki was Bock's Car.
The Nagasaki bomb was known as ‘Fat Man’.
Nagasaki wasn't the original target but Kokura, the first choice, was obscured by heavy cloud.
After the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 13% of the US people were in favor of "killing off" all Japanese people. And after Japan surrendered, 22.7% of Americans wished more atomic bombs had been dropped.
The single most destructive bombing in human history was in Japan during World War II, but it wasn't the atomic bombings, it was Operation Meetinghouse. On March 10, 1945 United States bombers dropped incendiaries on Tokyo. It killed more than 100,000 people and destroyed 267,171 buildings.
Of central Tokyo 16 square miles (41 km2; 10,000 acres) were destroyed, leaving an estimated 100,000 civilians dead and over one million homeless.
The USA detonated the worlds first thermonuclear weapon, the hydrogen bomb, on Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific on November 1, 1952.
A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb was lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia in February 1958, It was never recovered.
The Soviet hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, was set off over Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic Ocean as a test on October 30, 1961. At 50 megatons of yield, it is still the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise.
Tsar Bomba had a yield of 50 megatons, a force equivalent to 1,400 times the combined power of the two nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II—or approximately 1.4 percent of the power output of the Sun. The resulting seismic shock was measurable even on its third passage around the Earth.
The mushroom cloud that formed from the Tsar Momba was 64 kilometers (40 miles) high, 168 times higher than the Empire State Building.
The USA detonated the worlds first thermonuclear weapon, the hydrogen bomb, on Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific on November 1, 1952.
A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb was lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia in February 1958, It was never recovered.
The Soviet hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, was set off over Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic Ocean as a test on October 30, 1961. At 50 megatons of yield, it is still the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise.
Tsar Bomba had a yield of 50 megatons, a force equivalent to 1,400 times the combined power of the two nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II—or approximately 1.4 percent of the power output of the Sun. The resulting seismic shock was measurable even on its third passage around the Earth.
The mushroom cloud that formed from the Tsar Momba was 64 kilometers (40 miles) high, 168 times higher than the Empire State Building.
Napalm-B, used in the Vietnam War, was synthesized with only three ingredients: polystyrene, gasoline, and benzene.
Laos is often referred to as the most heavily bombed nation in history, due to the intense bombing campaign that was conducted there during the Vietnam War. The campaign, which was known as Operation Rolling Thunder, was conducted by the United States between 1964 and 1973, with the goal of destroying the Ho Chi Minh trail, which was a key supply route for the North Vietnamese army.
In 2008, over 100 countries came together and agreed to ban the use of cluster bombs. Collateral damage to civilians was found to high (98% of victims were civilian, of that, 27% children).
In 2008, over 100 countries came together and agreed to ban the use of cluster bombs. Collateral damage to civilians was found to high (98% of victims were civilian, of that, 27% children).
The Convention on Cluster Munitions, adopted on May 30, 2008, bans the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of these dangerous weapons. It aims to protect civilians from the devastating effects of cluster munitions and their unexploded remnants. Unfortunately, two countries refused to agree to this ban, Russia and the United States.
English fraudster James McCormick sold the ADE 651, a fake ‘bomb detector’, all over the world by purchasing novelty golf ball detectors for less than $20 and reselling it for $5000 each. He is thought to have made £50m from sales of more than 7,000 of the fake devices to countries, including Iraq. McCormick was jailed for ten years in 2013, but his scam has lives and the ‘bomb detectors’ are probably still in use today.
The United States dropped 26,171 bombs during 2016 - An average of three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day.
English fraudster James McCormick sold the ADE 651, a fake ‘bomb detector’, all over the world by purchasing novelty golf ball detectors for less than $20 and reselling it for $5000 each. He is thought to have made £50m from sales of more than 7,000 of the fake devices to countries, including Iraq. McCormick was jailed for ten years in 2013, but his scam has lives and the ‘bomb detectors’ are probably still in use today.
The United States dropped 26,171 bombs during 2016 - An average of three bombs every hour, 24 hours a day.
On April 13, 2017, the United States military dropped the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, also known as the "Mother of All Bombs," on an ISIS-Khorasan target in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. This bomb is the most powerful conventional bomb ever used in combat, with an explosive yield of approximately 11 tons of TNT.
The MOAB bomb is a large, GPS-guided weapon that is dropped from an aircraft, and is designed to destroy underground facilities and caves. The strike was carried out as part of a joint operation between U.S. and Afghan forces, and was aimed at destroying a complex of tunnels and caves used by ISIS-Khorasan militants. The use of the MOAB was widely reported in the media and sparked a debate about the use of such weapons in warfare.
Despite what modern cartoons would have you believe, it’s been 150 years since bombs looked like black spheres with burning wicks.
An ordinary TNT bomb involves atomic reaction, and could be called an atomic bomb. What we call an A-bomb involves nuclear reactions and should be called a nuclear bomb.
Grenades take their name from the French word for pomegranate, the fist-sized fruit that bursts forth with seeds when you open it.
Every Swiss citizen is required by law to have a bomb shelter or access to a bomb shelter.
There is a museum on the site of the first atomic bomb testing site in New Mexico. Due to radiation it’s only open 12 hours per year.
A suicide bomber planning on detonating in central Moscow on New Year's Eve 2011, used her phone as the trigger. When her mobile phone company sent her a spam message, wishing her a happy new year, the bomb detonated, killing only herself.
Bees can be trained to detect bombs.
Sources March Hares and Monkeys’ Uncles by Harry Oliver, Greatfacts.com
FUN BOMB FACTS
Despite what modern cartoons would have you believe, it’s been 150 years since bombs looked like black spheres with burning wicks.
An ordinary TNT bomb involves atomic reaction, and could be called an atomic bomb. What we call an A-bomb involves nuclear reactions and should be called a nuclear bomb.
Grenades take their name from the French word for pomegranate, the fist-sized fruit that bursts forth with seeds when you open it.
Every Swiss citizen is required by law to have a bomb shelter or access to a bomb shelter.
There is a museum on the site of the first atomic bomb testing site in New Mexico. Due to radiation it’s only open 12 hours per year.
A suicide bomber planning on detonating in central Moscow on New Year's Eve 2011, used her phone as the trigger. When her mobile phone company sent her a spam message, wishing her a happy new year, the bomb detonated, killing only herself.
Bees can be trained to detect bombs.
Sources March Hares and Monkeys’ Uncles by Harry Oliver, Greatfacts.com
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