Beer Bottles as Ordnance

[FinishForty]

Besides bombs, USAAF 11th Group B-24s in the Pacific sometimes dropped cases of empty beer bottles on enemy targets. Veterans say they wailed like a banshee on the way down and scattered glass fragments where they struck, and rumor had it that enemy soldiers avoided the areas where they struck for a day or two, fearing the bottles contained an unknown gas. I wonder if beer bottles were used as ordinance in other theaters of the war?

[SMF144]

Not beer bottles but milk bottles with a razor in the neck. One Canadian who piloted Stirlings in an RAF outfit told me about his crew bringing the odd case of empty milk bottles on board to drop over the target. On another occasion they dispatched a metal bed frame over Germany. The crew thought it would be good propaganda to show the Germans the Brits were desperate. He never mentioned the kitchen sink but any thing is possible.

Stephen