Showing posts with label Bowditch Tobruk bomb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bowditch Tobruk bomb. Show all posts

Thursday, June 7, 2018

DARING EDITOR'S BOMB

While under  siege  at Tobruk during  WWll , soldier James  Frederick " Big Jim" Bowditch , the  man who  would  later become the  Northern Territory's  fearless , crusading  editor , handled dangerous  sticky bombs , one of which (deloused)  recently  turned  up , above ,  on   the BBC  Antiques Roadshow , valued at 500-700 pound. A British invention, sticky bombs, filled with  nitroglycerin , were  designed to  be used against   tanks and other military vehicles .  An outer   case was  removed,  a pin pulled from the  sticky covered  interior   which  activated  a  fuse which went  off  after   five seconds . This blog , in dealing with  Bowditch's  war   service , ran  his  account of   having used sticky bombs.
Bowditch would have  had a chuckle at the fact that  the British  Home Guard was supplied with  sticky bombs   and  one of  them figured  in a  Dad's Army  television farce .