[303rd-Talk] Bill Runnels - A Few More Questions

[bill runnels]

The fuse cotter keys were in place to provide safety during handling of bombs on the ground and loading them in the aircraft.  As soon as the wheels left the ground on take-off, I headed for the bombay to pull the cotter keys, check the bomb release unit settings, shackles and armature wires. I had to complete this work and be back in the bombardier's nose position before reaching 10,000 feet when we went on oxygen.
   
  Ends of the armature wire(s) ran through the bomb nose and tail fuse. This provided protection while in the air. The other end of the wire(s) was connected to the bomb shackle. When the bombs left the aircraft, the armature wires remained connected to the shackles, thus allowing the fuse vanes to start spinning. When the bombs were salvoed (safe mode) the armature wires were released from the shackles and left the aircraft with the bombs.
   
  The nose and tail fuses were different:
        500 lb. nose fuses - M103 or M118 or M119
                   tail fuse - M101
   
      1000 lb. nose fuses - same as the 500 lb. bomb
                  tail fuse - M102
   
  

Bob Van Pelt <bvp6565 at yahoo.com> wrote:
  Bill: Wasn't a piano like wire sometimes attached to the cotter keys with the other end of the wire attached to a hard point in the bomb bay, so when the bombs were released, the cotters keys were pulled as the bombs dropped? Seems I've read or seen this somewhere. Or did you always pull the key by hand? When did you pull the keys - over the Channel, closer to the IP, before t/o?

You said in a message a while back that the front fuse had a millisecond delay and was a back-up for the fuse in the tail. How did one set the delay? And could the M101 or M102 be used for both the front and rear fuse or was one specifically for the rear and one specifically for the front?

Thanks, Bill, for helping me understand this!
Bob.

Bob Van Pelt wrote: