Demolition/Sabotage/Booby-Trap explosive charges

[xylstra]

Something almost never heard of is the Demolition/Sabotage/Booby-Trap explosive charge, usually deployed in the event of a crash or forced landing in enemy territory to prevent the aircraft or various pieces of its intelligence-sensitive equipment from being captured.

So, the purpose of this post is to provoke discussion of the topic, be it technical descriptions of the munition types, deployment procedures or standing orders, anecdotal stories - amusing or serious, historical or recent, etc, etc.

I myself, remember reading an account of the allied capture of German WWII aircraft and the technical recovery/investigation teams subsequently finding explosive demolition charges concealed in the wings.

To give you something to ponder have a look at the equipment schedule for the Spitfire which includes one of said explosive charges (item #20) - very interesting...

[Bill Walker]

Very interesting. There are possibly two explosive devices shown, items 9 and 20.

This type of chart is prepared to permit the calculation of the c.g. and empty weight when some piece of equipment is, or is not, fitted. This suggests to me that the explosives were expected to be present only some of the time. Are there any documents that would show that to be the case? I wonder about that, since I can't recall too many examples of reports of attempts to destroy an aircraft after it was forced down, and those reports that do exist usually mention use of a hand gun or flare gun.

Maybe I'm biased by my flight time in turbine gas guzzlers, but if I was allowed to chose between a two pound bomb or another two pounds of fuel, I know what I would pick. Every time.

[RudiS]

Here is a thread on these devices on He 111 and Ju 88 a/c.
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=20867

Regards,
Rudi.

[ClinA-78]

I am aware of a (self-destruction) device fixed on... a WWI German airplane.

ClinA-78

[Graham Boak]

Explosive charges were normally carried to ensure the destruction of sensitive items such as the IFF and various radars. One problem with the introduction of centimetric radar was that the cavity magnetron is basically a solid block of metal and effectively indestructible.