"U.S. Aerial Bombs Painting Guide" Topic

A modeling guide to U.S. aerial bombs, color photographs and specifications from the relevant manuals to help you paint your bombs. Link here: link

It's just occurred to me— why would the Army/Navy/Air Force, etc., bother to paint something that is just gonna blow itself to smithereens when used as intended? Who cares what color it is— you're not looking at the thing, and the enemy's last thoughts when they see it crash through the ceiling will not be, "Oh, that color just does *not* go with the decor of this room."

From the post, "Bombs are painted for prevention of rust, as a means for identification, and for camouflage."

I think that having an easy system by which the 19 year old groundcrew member could distinguish between let's say an incendiary or armor piercing bomb might be useful – since most of a bomb's existence is spent sitting in a cold dark bunker

How is a 500 lb bomb inside a bomb rack in need of being camouflaged?
Even if strapped externally to the underside of a fighter, what does olive drubbed coloring do to prevent the bomb from being readily seen? When it's plummeting to Earth, is that paint going to stop the enemy from seeing their approaching death?

I can see painting a bomb to prevent rust (though honestly, that's a long term storage concern, not a concern for ammunition that is going to be expended in a month or so of manufacture). But then, it's still a bomb. What's a little exterior rust going to do to prevent or reduce the explosion? Are you storing the thing in a pond full of saltwater? (I'll give the possibility to munitions transported at sea, but that would be completed in less than a month— or possibly even within a week or two. The Navy might have a concern for what they carried, but aircraft munitions were not stored on deck or where they'd be exposed to the sea.)
So in relative peace-time, yes, paint the bombs as a corrosion preventative. In war-time, don't waste the time or materiel. Get ‘em to the front!

Yes, markings bombs for identification purposes makes sense. But why the whole bomb? A red ring, a white ring, a yellow ring… what more do you need?

Aside from identification markings, I suspect it comes down to "they have to be painted because we paint things." That's the Army all over.

One thing that I didn't fully appreciate until I researched the subject is that most bombs spent a considerable amount of time outside, in open bomb dumps around the airfields or next to the aircraft hardstands. There are photos of these dumps in the post. There is obvious value in not having the bomb dump stand out, which is referenced in the "camouflage" portion of the painting specification.

The Navy painted their bombs Light Gull Gray before the war which matched the underside color of Navy aircraft. But for a much greater period of time the bomb would be stored on the ground, so it made more sense to camouflage the bomb for that environment than the relatively brief period while it was airborne. This is still a consideration for aircraft camouflage today, are you trying to camouflage the aircraft while on the ground, in the air, or not at all? Depends on the threat.

When it comes to the military and painting anything that does not move on its own, never put it past some senior person wanting bombs painted. I had a friend in the MP battalion on Fort Meade back in the 70s who's CO had the troops painting rocks.

It was a system designed to minimize mistakes as much as possible. Tens of thousands of young men were given excellent training in ordnance handling, but they didn't have the luxury of following up that training with months or years of non-combat duty. They were thrust into high-tempo operations around the globe, in all weathers and conditions.

The information stenciled on the bomb is pretty much the minimum of what you need. You want to know precisely what type of bomb it is, and what kind of fuse is required. Lot numbers help track faulty ordnance. Manufacturing date helps you "rotate stock". Put it on opposing sides so it's easy to read regardless of whether it is in storage, loaded in a bay, or slung underwing. Note that these formats were essentially derived from lessons learned in marking artillery shells in WWI. Successful lessons, I should add. Also observe the profusion of aircraft and ordnance stenciling following the war and that still exists today, in a highly trained and professional service: "Do Not Touch", "Do Not Step", "Stand Clear", "Remove Before Flight", "Warning: Hot", "No Hand Hold", etc. If OSHA regulations are written in blood, stenciling regs are on the back of disabled aircraft and injured crew.

Related fun fact: prior to 1940 German Stiehlhandgranate" had the instructions "For Gebrauch Sprengkapsel Einsetzen" stenciled in large white letters on the head. This reminded the solider to insert the detonator (which was separate) in the base of the grenade before use. The stencil was phased out in 1940, after which German grenades developed a mysterious "reputation" for failure to detonate. Although occasionally attributable to manufacturing flaws, the overwhelming reason was failure to insert the detonator.

Here is one aerial bomb you don't want to mix-up between training and live:

Wiki – WE.177 air-dropped nuclear weapon

The training ones have been distributed to museums around the UK – but painted as live. I saw one a few weeks ago at the Yorkshire Air Museum (Nr York), and one last year at the Imperial War Museum North (Manchester).

Interesting that the bombs were left uncovered and painted to disguise them… well, at least the ones that weren't bright yellow!?!
I'd have thought they'd put camo-netting over ‘em.

But bright yellow?

Maybe it was to say "Hey, dummy, explosives— stop smoking near us!"

As you can't seem to leave it alone, there is at least one practical reason for painting bombs.

To make them identifiable from a distance. Forget rings and stencils, you need to be able in the first instance to tell roughly what the bomb roughly IS.

Say, black for HX, blue for incendiaries, green for practice, etc. Then you at least know which pile(s) to head for.

Even bullets Parzival. I can speak on this from first hand views.

"Military bullets with painted tips are often used to quickly identify different types of ammunition in the field. These color-coded tips help differentiate between armor-piercing rounds, incendiary rounds, tracer rounds, and other specialized types. This system allows for accurate selection of the appropriate ammunition for the task at hand, especially in low-light or high-stress situations.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Armor-Piercing (AP) Rounds:
Often marked with a black tip, these rounds are designed to penetrate armored targets.
Incendiary Rounds:
Typically blue, these rounds ignite upon impact and are used for setting fires.
Tracer Rounds:
Red or pink tips indicate tracer rounds, which leave a visible trail for better visibility and target adjustments.
Other Colors:
Green may indicate AP/Incendiary rounds, while yellow and orange can represent various types like HE, tracer, or explosive rounds.
The color coding system is crucial for military and law enforcement personnel to efficiently manage and utilize different types of ammunition in a variety of combat scenarios."

"Can't seem to leave it alone???" Chill, dude. Just enjoying the discussion and learning from it, while having a little fun, too.

I have no problems with the ID element from some distance… but again, I think that's covered by a few simple markings in prominently visible locations. (And yes, I've seen pictures of color coded ammunition.)
But still— the whole bomb?

I got a kick out of that heavily painted nuclear bomb. But in that case, having an effective corrosion coating is an absolute necessity. And I suppose since NOBODY ever wants to use one, you might want to gussy it up a little— "Yeah, we got a nuke. And it's fancy, too!" Some weapons work best simply by being shown off.

but again, I think that's covered by a few simple markings in prominently visible locations.

Again, these were decisions made largely on experience. Simple marking systems were adopted for artillery shells during WWI, but the increasing variety and complexity of munitions meant that combinations of colored rings (plus letters and symbols for the Germans) were insufficient to convey the necessary information. By late in the war, textual information was being stenciled on shells to augment the color coding. This persisted into WW2.

Even the smaller aerial bombs of WW2 were much larger than most artillery shells, and therefore why not just put the relevant info on in plain text? Remember that one of the great strengths the Western Allies exercised was bringing all manner of subject experts from industry and academia into the war. We tend to think about the boffins perfecting radar and sonar, or the horticulturalists who developed effective camouflage patterns (its true), but there were also industrial engineers and management specialists who figured out things like, "marking bombs in such-and-such manner reduces ordnance training by ∑man-hours, reduces crew error by n%, and reduces faulty ordnance by y%, at a cost of .03¢ and .06 man-hours per piece of ordnance."