Molotov bread basket
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Molotov bread basket is the Finnish name for a Soviet bomb that combined a large high explosive charge with a cluster of incendiary bombs. It was used against the cities of Finland during the Winter War of 1939-1940. The bomb consisted of a cylinder seven and a half feet long and three feet in diameter. As it fell from an aircraft, a small turbine on the nose turned to release a spring loaded casing which, on opening, scattered 100 or more incenduary bombs; the main HE charge in the tail of the weapon continued to fall as a conventional bomb.[1]
In 1939 the Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, claimed Russia was not dropping the bombs on Finland, but merely airlifting food to starving Finns. In addition to naming the bombs after the politician, Finns started making "a drink to go with the food": the Molotov cocktail.
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- ^ *Langdon Davies, John (June 1940). The Lessons of Finland. Picture Post.
