The Germans would sometimes use a timed detonator on their bombs, intended to kill emergency services personnel who moved in after the raid and were fighting fires, aiding the wounded, etc. If you haven't seen it, the show "Danger UXB" from the early 80's is good.
You jest, but I believe some of these incidents have been caused by some sort of delay mechanism which gets stuck, until one day it is dug up or corrodes enough to unstick, at which point it goes off.
After I clicked reply and went to do a chore I thought to myself "I didn't talk about how it's been almost 80 years and it's unlikely to have been a timer." Doh.
The British just sent two waves of bombers one a few hours after the first to kill off the ambulances and firefighters. Seems like the Germans once again beat the British at their own disgusting tactics with better technology.
Also do you have a source other than a post-war tv show? Im getting a lot of unrelated search results when trying to confirm that timed fuses were used this way. Typically timed fuses were used to make the bomb explode before reaching the ground so it wouldn't just blow dirt into the air but would actually collapse lots of roofs etc. mis-set timers could hurt rescue personnel but i havent heard that that was even intended by the Germans.
These were not proximity fuses, but fuses with clockwork timers designed to delay hours or days until they exploded. This turns them into area denial weapons. Militaries use them to this day (but with modern electronics) on targets like airfields.
Early "proximity" fuses like you're talking about (not the later radar VT fuses developed by the British & Americans, first used at the Battle of the Bulge) had mechanical timers with delays of only a few seconds to account for the planned height of the aircraft when dropped. Many of the men awarded the George Cross for their UXB work encountered them after they malfunctioned (If you ever have the chance to visit the UK Imperial War Museum, it's highly recommended.)
> Seems like the Germans once again beat the British at their own disgusting tactics with better technology.
Check your timeline. The German bombing campaign against the civilian population of major British cities started in early September 1940 (mom spent many nights sheltering in the family's Anderson Shelter from the German bombs). Retaliatory bombing in occupied Europe & Germany by the British didn't begin until the next year.
I was asking for a source that those were actually used on british cities. That article sounds like bombs that were supposed tk detonate not the ‘ambulance killers’ you say were used.
>When explosive devices failed to detonate
From wikipedia:
The Royal Air Force began bombing military targets in Germany, such as docks and shipyards, in March 1940, and began targeting Berlin in August 1940.
Im sorry Churchill’s unpopular warmongering killed so many of your people.
https://youtu.be/Mm-RQtPNvqY?t=268