Introduction.

Latest release from Eduard in their Brassin range is the SD2 Cluster bomb set that includes individual bombs and carrier. There is also bonus item in the form of a resin crate and a separate casting of a set of 24 bombs to be placed in the crate.

History.

The Butterfly Bomb, or (Sprengbombe Dickwandig 2kg or SD2) was a German 2 kilogram anti-personnel submunition used by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. It was so named because the thin cylindrical metal outer shell which hinged open when the bomblet deployed gave it the superficial appearance of a large butterfly. SD2 bomblets were not dropped individually, but were packed into containers containing between 6 and 108 submunitions. The SD2 submunitions were released after the container was released from the aircraft and had burst open. This bomb type was one of the first cluster bombs ever used in combat and it proved to be a highly effective weapon.
Butterfly bombs were first used against the town of Ipswich in 1940, but were also dropped on Grimsby and Cleethorpes in June 1943, amongst various other targets in the United Kingdom. They were subsequently used against Allied forces in the Middle East. The British Government deliberately suppressed news of the damage and disruption caused by butterfly bombs in order not to encourage the Germans to keep using them. The SD2 saw use in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which began on 22 June 1941. Twenty to thirty aircrews had been picked to drop SD2s and SD10s (10kg submunitions) on key Soviet airfields, a flight of three aircraft being assigned to each field. The purpose of these early attacks was to cause disruption and confusion as well as to preclude dispersion of Soviet planes until the main attack was launched. It was reported that Kampfgeschwader 51 had lost 15 aircraft due to accidents with the SD2s, nearly half of the total Luftwaffe losses that day.
The last recorded death from a German butterfly bomb in England took place on November 27, 1956, over 11 years after the Second World War ended: Flight Lieutenant Herbert Denning of the RAF was examining an SD2 at the Upminster bomb cemetery, East of RAF Hornchurch, when it detonated. He died of shrapnel and blast injuries at Oldchurch Hospital the same day. Deaths have also been recorded on the Island of Malta as late as 1981 when Paul Gauci, a 41-year-old Maltese man, died after welding a butterfly bomb to a metal pipe and using it as a mallet, thinking it was a harmless can. The latest find of such a bomb was on 28 October 2009, by an 11 year old boy in a secluded valley close to a heavily bombarded airfield. This bomb was safely detonated on-site by the Armed Forces of Malta.

Contents.

All the parts are placed in the now familiar Brassin plastic blister packaging. The blister has a piece of foam cushioning to minimise damage in the post.
Contents
4 x 26 cluster bombs [104 in total].
1 x under fuselage bomb carrier, with four bays..
4 x bomb carrier covers to fit into the bays.
1 x fret of PE parts, not pre-coloured.
1 x resin crate.
1 x set of 24 bombs cast together to fit into the crate.
1 x sheet of instructions.

This release is designed for Eduards 1/32 Bf 109E. The bomb carrier will take up to 96 bombs, 24 bombs for each of the four covers that fit into the bomb carrier. If you don't fancy utilising all the bombs then you can just fill one or two of the covers. The bombs are very crisply cast and appear identical to my references. There is a small fuse to fit to the bombs from the PE fret, the instructions suggest attaching the fuses before fitting to the bomb carrier. There is a small attachment point under each bomb that fits into the holes on the bomb carrier covers. Oddly there is no guidance to what colours to apply to the components. My references suggest that the bombs were painted generally dark green, although they were sometimes painted dull yellow if used in the Middle East or dispersed over grain crops at harvest time. As you can see from the image I dry fitted my bomb carrier to Eduards 1/32 Weekend Edition Bf 109E-3 and it fits perfectly. The bomb carrier will need a little cleaning up at the front as this was attached to the block and is a little rough.
PE fret contains 110 tiny [even in 1/32 scale] representations of the fuses, as there are 104 bombs that means there are a few spare. Also on the fret are carry handles for the bonus bomb crate.

Conclusions.

A very interesting release and although I am not a Luftwaffe expert, I am not aware of the release of similar submunitions in any scale before [I sure someone out there will know otherwise]. This will create a great talking point if you fit one of these sets to your Bf 109E and take it to your local club meet. It will demand a fair bit of patience to attach fuses to all the bombs, but nothing difficult.