In response to the UXO Related History Remembered article posted in our December UXO E-Newsletter, NATEODA Historian, LTC Robert E. Leiendecker, USA Retired, provided UXOInfo.com with the following descriptions of the unidentified photos. A special thanks to him for sharing with our readers.
Mr. Leindecker explained, "The first photo is the TM-11/M-1 Thermal Discharger set up for operation. It was designed to discharge the condensers in German Rheinmetall electric bomb fuzes. In the background is the brass steam boiler placed on a portable field stove. It holds water that produces the steam and passes it through the rubber hose you see to the discharge head which is attached by magnets over the fuze head. The steam would penetrate the fuze head through the spaces around the electrical contacts, condense and short out the fuze. The bomb is a German 50 kg HE bomb with screamers, or flutes, attached to the fins, which were often called the Flutes of Jericho. The discharger would work on the (17), (17)A, (17) B, (49) series, 50b (or "Y" fuze), 59, (59)A, 79, 79(A), (89)and (89)B fuzes."
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