A ‘Butterfly Bomb’ (or Sprengbombe Dickwandig 2 kg or SD 2) c1943.

An original, pair of glass-mounted positives used for training purposes during WW2. The two images show the bomblet casing open and closed.

This bomblet was a German 2 kilogram anti-personnel submunition used by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War and was one of the first cluster bombs ever used in combat and it proved to be a highly effective weapon.

On the night of 13th June 1943, the Luftwaffe dropped thousands of ‘butterfly bombs’ on Grimsby and Cleethorpes. Scores of people were killed and hundreds injured. In an attempt to keep the enemy unaware of the success of this new type of anti-personnel device, to lower the chances of repeat attacks elsewhere, reporting restrictions were applied. To this day, the story of the chaos and destruction in the Grimsby area is not well-known outside Lincolnshire.

Parts of ‘butterfly bombs’ were found in Grimsby loft spaces well after the war ended. One was found in Malta in 2009.