Talk:Sticky bomb

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I made 50 Sticky bombs back in the gulf war. It was such a fun! ps i love my mummy

[edit] Other Sticky Bombs

Similar bombs were also used by American and Russian armies during the war, a la Saving Private Ryan and Call of Duty 2. Why does it direct to this British weapon but nothing else? Captain Jackson 05:17, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Because this is the famous one? GraemeLeggett 12:00, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

And its not an improvised one. It was actually issued to soldiers by the government. All others that you refer to are basically made in the field, and we can't exactly say how they were made, as the explosives or bonding element of the bomb are different among them. AllStarZ 15:52, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Truth can be stranger . . .

. . . Than fiction!

I mean, who would dare to suggest that the Brits (infamous for the safety of their weapons during WW2, often to the point where they would compromise the effectiveness of the weapon!) would not only sanction such an idiotic weapon, but actually PUT THE THING IN PRODUCTION!

It actually makes sense when you discover that this was actually an unusual case - the inventor of this bomb was given the opportunity to bypass the normal review by the Ordnance board.Johno 05:41, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

The design does seem a little mad and many resisted its introduction. Churchill himself made sure it went through. The great advantage of the sticky bomb was that it made use of materials that did not affect the production of regular weapons: glass, wool, resin, bakerlite etc and the cheap nitoglycerin. And it could, just about, be effective against German tanks of 1940. Gaius Cornelius 19:02, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

You sure about that? My source is "German and Allied Secret Weapons of WW2", by Hogg, King and Batchelor, and they say that it was brought to MD1 "By means not entirely clear to this day". Now, 30-year rule documents could have changed that, but I'd be interested to know if you can verify that. Thanks! :)

My source is the National Archive "WO 185/1 Anti-tank measures Sticky Bomb adoption and production" and "CAB 120/372 - sticky bomb etc". I cannot post any of this material on the web, but I can share some material by private e-mail for research purposes only. Gaius Cornelius 19:12, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Although I can't be sure I have a feeling that the grenades were actually intended for use by the Auxiliary Units in case of invasion and hence the normal safety standards were considered less important. Ian Dunster 21:32, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

The original order for the sticky bomb was for one million (though rather fewer were actually produced) far more than the auxiliary units needed. Anyway, in general, the Auxiliary units got the best of everything. It is not really clear just how dangerous it really was to the user, the main problem would be staying alive long enough to get sufficiently close to an armoured vehicle. Gaius Cornelius 22:30, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Rather them than me - I seem to remember that the adhesive used was based on bird lime and was very powerful, i.e., sticky. Ian Dunster 12:34, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

The adhesive was resin based. It certainly seems to have enjoyed a reputation for sticking to clothes and I have read a couple of stories like that quoted in the main article. The bomb only weighed 1-2 kg and if required a man can easily provide 100 kg of force and probably much more: just how sticky could it really have been? I do wonder if the stories are apocryphal; or that the stated events occured because those involved had an exagerated sense of just how sticky the adhesive was and simply did not try to pull it off; or that, given the overall fragility of the weapon, men were told that applying sufficient force to remove it from clothing would be very dangerous. Government reports reveal that it was poor at sticking to vertical surfaces of a vehicle. Gaius Cornelius 21:28, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

It seems pretty smart to me, though magnets are smarter. What's dumb is that apparently Tom Hanks' character in a movie thought -grease- would make a good adhesive. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.72.21.221 (talk) 01:31, 22 February 2007 (UTC).