The Proximity Fuse - Secret Weapon of World War 2

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you one of the major advancements and ordinance to emerge from World War two is the VT or proximity fuze a top-secret project during the war the details of construction and operation are still a secret some of its unique properties however may now be described it is not the sort of fuse that protects the electrical wiring system in your house or factory this fuse is a weapon of warfare the type which is required to detonate an artillery shell a rocket or mortar projectile or an aerial bomb these deadly missiles consist of a heavy steel casing containing a charge of high explosives such as TNT detonation of this charge splits the casing into hundreds of sharp jagged fragments which are hurled outward at tremendous velocity it is these fragments which cause damage to any target that lies near the explosion the charge however will not detonate spontaneously so the projectile must be fitted with a fuse which will initiate the explosive action at the right moment the simplest form of artillery or bomb fuses explode their carriers after impact with the target but this method of detonation has been found to be ineffective when firing at enemy soldiers hidden in trenches or when airplanes are engaged with heavy anti-aircraft shells or rockets these targets could be engaged more effectively if the projector would explode when it came close if the fuse could know when it was within damaging distance of the target such a fuse had been dreamed out for many years but during World War two the scientists of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory the National Bureau of Standards in more than three score of institutional and industrial laboratories made those dreams a reality British and Canadian scientists contributed the results of their experimentation through a system of International Liaison in which our embassy in London played an important part the VT fuse was created by cramming a complete radio sending and receiving set into a tiny space in the nose of a shell or bomb the radio is turned on only after the projectile has started on its last deadly mission once in flight the fuse sends out radio waves which are its feelers continually probing the space around the shell insert to a suitable target when the shell passes close to a target such as an airplane the radio waves are reflected back to the fuse where they trigger a firing circuit and explode the projectile the same system may be applied to targets on the ground in this case the earth acts as the reflector and the projectile is exploded in such a position that the spray of deadly fragments envelops the target although experimentation did not begin in this country until late in 1940 an accelerated program of laboratory work and firing tests resulted in the first model being ready for production only 18 months later this meant that the tiny radio sets and their delicate components had to be made strong enough to operate properly after being fired from a gun that adequate sources of electrical power had to be developed but HD devices had to be designed and had to be proven to be truly safe although the VT project was sponsored jointly by the Army and the Navy it was agreed that the protection of our capital ships was of first importance therefore the first model of fuse to be placed in production was designed for naval use large quantities of this model were made available to our ships during 1942 and VT brought down its first enemy plane a Japanese dive bomber on 5 January 1943 the new fuses were soon supplied to the British Navy as well and as the quantity aboard Allied ships increased enemy planes found it more and more difficult to attack our fleets Japanese officials have frankly stated that it was this increased efficiency of our anti-aircraft fire which forced them to resort to suicide tactics such action however gained them little since VT was found to be just as efficient against the kamikaze as against the earlier bombing planes the use of VT in naval action however was only the beginning the first Navy fuses were still in the production lines when the design and similar models for the army was begun the army fuse referred to in the European theater as posit first saw action in the defense of London against the flying bomb attack of June to August 1944 the VT fuses and American fire control equipment were supplied to both the British and the United States and aircraft guns deployed in the operation VT helped save London and it is a very real reason why many a London landmark is still standing and why many a London home is still inhabited due to security general use of VT over land did not begin until December 1944 when field howitzers firing VT fused shells were thrown into the now famous Battle of the Bulge mirages of bursting shells such as these took the Germans completely by surprise and annihilated some of whom Run states cracked battalions Allied air forces employed VT fused bombs to silence enemy anti-aircraft guns during raids over northern Italy Iwo Jima and the Japanese home islands army fighters and carrier-based naval aircraft fired VT fused rockets and enemy strongpoints and direct support of ground operations and artillerymen pounded german and japanese ground troops continually with VT barrage 'as the German soldiers promptly nicknamed it Hellfire a perfect description of this weapon is truly great achievement of our scientific and industrial organizations you

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Channel: Museum of Our Industrial Heritage

Views: 383,689

Rating: 4.8587632 out of 5

Keywords: proximity fuse, Destruction, Ratheon, industrial history, World War 2, secret weapon, world war II, Museum of Our Industrial Heritage

Id: 6-D592VR4RU

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 8min 23sec (503 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 15 2012

Reddit Comments

The story of how the proximity fuse was anonymously mailed to the British at the start of the war fascinates me. It might of saved the war.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/never2spicy 📅︎︎ Jul 19 2019 🗫︎ replies

Interesting, I had to this believed that there was a timer in the shell. You knew the time to target and so detonated it sort of just before it reached the target. Guess the timer tolerance would have had to be pretty fine.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/roc40 📅︎︎ Jul 17 2019 🗫︎ replies