Description
This is a Japanese Navy mechanical impact nose fuze. It is used in a 32 kg incendiary bomb. The fuze is brass. This fuze can be found with the D-2(b) aerial burst tail fuze.
The upper portion of the body houses the vane hub, which is secured by bearing pins,and is threaded into the lower body and held by a grub screw. The striker body, threaded into the pressure plate, is prevented from rotating-during the arming time by a shear wire and a locating stud. Two grub screws engage the keyway in the vane hub and allows the pressure plate to rotate with the vane hub. Two screws hold the detonator holder to the lower fuze body.
This fuze was used in a 32-kg. bomb employed as an antivehicle mine in beach defenses against landing forces attempting a seaward invasion.
Functioning
On release, the safety pins are removed, the vanes rotate and the pressure plate moves upward and away from the fuze (due to the left-hand threads). The vanes do not move vertically because the hub to which they are attached, turns also - being held by the bearing pins. The pressure plate is stopped by the grub screws when it reaches the limit of its keyway. Impact pushes the pressure plate inward. The striker body is forced downward, shear wire is broken, and the striker point hits the detonator.
Hazardous Components
Primer and detonator.
Physical Data
Length, overall - 6 in, 152.4 mm
Width, overall - 2.25 in, 57.2 mm
See Also
Tail, D-2(b), Aerial Burst
Source(s)
OP 1667, Japanese Explosive Ordnance, Volume 1 (1946)
OPNAV 30-3M, Handbook of Japanese Explosive Ordnance (1945)
USNBD - Japanese Bombs & Fuzes (1944)
TM-E9-1984, Enemy Bombs and Fuzes, Section VII, Japanese Fuzes (1942)
