Warbird Information Exchange

I'm trying to gather some (preferably photographic) information to help a warbird operator create some authentic inert ordnance.

I'm not an ordnance expert, but I know that the M47 was a 100lb bomb used at least from 1944-1972. I believe it could be High Explosive (HE) as well as White Phosphorus (WP) or Plasticized White Phosphorus (PWP). Sub variants included the M47A2 and A3.

USAF Skyraiders in Vietnam/Thailand routinely carried the M47 and I am particularly interested in the WP or PWP variants. Color photos normally show this munition painted what I would describe as "sea foam green". Sometimes the stripes were yellow, other times red. These colors, stripes, and markings seem to defy the "book answers" that say the weapons were usually white with yellow stripes. I've never seen a good example of the data stencil.

I've already exhausted the following sources: skyraider.org, AF Armament Museum, and NMUSAF plus the excellent A-1 book by Mutza. I've also seen some b&w photos from what appears to be M47s loaded on B-29s bound for Japan. If anyone has any other sources on how these munitions were marked & painted in the 1970-72 era, I would really appreciate it.

Finally, I've seen some museums take Army M38A1 & Navy Mk15 Mod 4 practice bombs and paint them to resemble the M47 - what I haven't been able to confirm is whether the size difference between the types makes the practice bombs decent stand-ins or not.

Thanks in advance to the WIX brain trust ...

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

This photo, courtesy of the webmaster at skyraider.org, is possibly the best I've seen but nowhere good enough to tell what the stencils read.

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Ken a quick Fold3 search found one ...


England - Incendiary Bombs, M47A2. 100 Lb.

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“PMURT KCUF”

Have you looked at this Ken?

http://usaaf.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=578

Thanks, that does help. All the images seem to have 1940's dates on the casing although I imagine many (if not all) of the bombs dropped in the 70's would have been made in the 60's or 70's.

Anyone have access to the document MIL-B-10746D?

Keep it coming, and thanks.

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Ummmm Probably not. Never underestimate the production capacity of US Industry in wartime.
The last WWII production GP's were dropped on Iraq.

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

Need stencils made? I can do.

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

TM9-1904, page 669 will give you most of the painting info. Check page 708 for other reference material.

Here is 1904: https://ia700702.us.archive.org/32/item ... 9-1904.pdf

These don't have all the info, but enough to get you going.

Hopefully attached are two images. The first from TM9-1980 “BOMBS FOR AIRCRAFT” dated July 1950 that shows practice bomb M38 and smoke bomb M47 in colored side by side fashion. Note M38 has an elongated tail cone and larger radius ogive. Unlike the M47, the practice bomb’s sole fuze well was in the tail to accommodate a spotting charge. This manual lists colors for chemical smoke bombs as a gray with three yellow bands and yellow markings as pictured. Older manuals (1944) list the body of most chemical bombs as “Blue-Grey” with same yellow bands & markings. Note stenciling forward of the front suspension band.

The second image is of a later A4 variation from TM3-400, “CHEMICAL BOMBS and CLUSTERS” dated May 1957. Note stenciling behind the forward suspension band. I suspect this is the timeframe that you are interested in. –Adrian

And not outside the realm of possibility, Ed Heinemann was tasked with redesigning bomb casing shapes into the now familiar 'high speed' contours because jets shoving waterheater shaped WW2 bombs through the air mounted on external pylons in Viet Nam was eating range as well as speeds.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Thanks Adrian, helpful post!

As you guys can see, when comparing the color and stencil data from "the book" to the actual Skyraider photo above, the two can be somewhat hard to match.

Here is a photo I took last month at the AF Armament Museum. The gentleman I spoke with felt like these were inert M47's that were repainted some time many years ago for display and therefore couldn't say the markings were original. I took more detailed photos but this will give you guys the idea. The yellow stencil is just like the black but says "SMOKE" and M47A1 by the way. (photo by Ken)

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."