Blockbuster bomb

Most general-purpose bombs, termed medium capacity' (MC) by the RAF, contained 50% explosive by weight, the remainder comprised primarily of the fragmentation casing.

It had a 27 in (69 cm) long lightweight, empty cylindrical tail onto which a closed end was fitted, amounting to a total length of 115 in (2.92 m).

The 4000 lb high-capacity design was little more than a cylinder full of explosives: it was un-aerodynamic and lacked fins.

When fitted with a conical nose and a drum tail, the 1,800 kg (2 short tons) blockbuster bomb would fall straight down.

In 1947 Alfred Cecil Brooks of Stourbridge was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for creating the Blockbuster, although his citation was worded "outstanding services to the King of a nature that cannot be revealed".

Due to the airflow over the detonating pistols fitted in the nose, it would often explode even if dropped in a supposedly "safe" unarmed state.

We dropped it in the middle of town [Koblenz], which gave the aircraft a hell of a belt, lifted it up and blew an escape hatch from out of the top.617 Squadron developed a technique of dropping a 1,000 lb MC bomb just before a 12,000 lb HC bomb.

[12] An unusual dry period led to low river levels in the Rhine in December 2011, exposing a 4,000 lb HC bomb in the riverbed near Koblenz.

[16] On 19 December 2016, a British bomb identified as a 4,000 lb HC blockbuster[17] was discovered in Augsburg, Germany.

[18] On 29 August 2017, another British HC 4000 lb bomb was discovered during construction work near the Goethe University in Frankfurt, requiring the evacuation of approximately 65,000 people within a radius of 1.5 km (0.93 mi).

Live tests began at start of 1941; a few were used operationally in late 1941 with parachute dropping and delay timer.

[26][27] The large raid on Coventry on 14–15 November 1940 included the use of 50 parachute mines, which caused extensive blast damage.