This incendiary bomb is one of an estimated 38,000 dropped on the City of Portsmouth by the German air force between 1940 and 1944. It was intended to burn whatever building it fell on, killing anyone trapped inside and causing great destruction.
These bombs contained thermite, which burned at a very high temperature, with a casing of magnesium. There are still traces of the sand used to extinguish the fire attached to the metal.
Incendiary bombs were used by all nations involved in World War II – casings for ‘baskets’ of the bombs were made in Portsmouth.
The firestorms the British and American air forces created with incendiaries in Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo and Kobe, killed thousands. Across Europe and Japan the bombs destroyed acres of buildings; more than any other single weapon they changed the face of cities worldwide, suddenly and dramatically.
In Portsmouth alone some 6,600 buildings, nearly a tenth of the city, were destroyed by incendiary bombs.
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