H1MIN: WWII VT Fuze

A brief explanation of the VT or radio proximity fuze, a secret technology developed by the British and US scientists during WWII.

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[DreadX]

Small correction: It doesn't matter how fast the projectile is flying through the air, it's the acceleration in the barrel that is a limiting factor in making the fuse work. The fuse needs to withstand an acceleration of 10's of thousands of G's to survive being shot out of a barrel.

[juliosunga]

There was even a report of germans refusing to leave cover for an attack because of artillery air bursting overhead. The first time they encountered it they nearly mutinied.

[BecauseHyena]

This should be the gold standard for informational videos. Short enough to keep it interesting and long enough to cover all relevant details.

[TomDoesUtube]

When I was overseas and short (just have a week left the country and have lived all this time) this ‘forward observer’ and me are talking about high explosive rounds he sometimes called in, this is 105 mm artillery shell. There happened to be one nearby with a variable proximity fuse already on it.
Okay variable proximity fuse. This fuse has a plastic nose with a radio tucked in it. When it leaves the barrel a hammer smashes a glass vile of acid which activates the battery, which turns on the radio, which when it detects its within a few feet of something solid, like a jeep, a truck, a tank, (or a Connex) it sets the round off.
When you need to fly over friendly troops it has a timer you can set before you shove it in the breach, so it’s not armed for a few seconds. I went and got the round which was in a cardboard board storage tube, plopped it next to the Connex that we were standing by, slid the cardboard tube off the round, where it stood up for a millisecond before in horror we stood helpless as we watched it tilt and then lean over tapping the Connex, smash goes the plastic nose, popping the hammer, and I see this puff of smoke come up from the acid being released which activates the radio in a proximity fuse. No timer to save our asses.
Me and this dude run like hell, I look back and see it on the ground hissing. Me and a couple of my friends are talking it over, cause this is a rather dangerous situation right in the middle of our camp (6 cannons at the top of this hill). Maybe we should radio for bomb squad or something like that, but it would take time before anyone could reach us by helicopter, and who knows what the round is going to do.
I did it and I just gotta take care of it myself. Everybody it saying 'no don't do it' as they are backing up. I go and get a fuse wrench, gently tipped the round up and stretched out at arms length try to screw the fuse out of it. But it’s just not working, and I say to myself ‘what the f*ck is arms length going to do me anyway’. I sit down on the ground with the round and smoking fuse nice and snug between my legs, slowly put on the fuse wrench trying not to touch any of the guts and start turning. There was really nothing to be scared about as there was no way that if the thing detonated there was going to be anything left of me to worry about. All my buddies were as far away as I could see them.
Now before this happened I was thinking maybe I should extend my tour. When you get short in Viet Nam, you can extend your twelve months of duty by one month and not have to do the six months back in the states. Needless to say with every turn of the fuse wrench I said out loud "I Will Not Extend". ( Anything can happen at Anytime )

[life_with_bernie]

When I was a Navy GM during Vietnam we were still using WWII ammo for our 3" guns and had both VT Frag and VT non-frag rounds in stock. VT frag was great for dealing with small surface targets and VT non-frag was our standard training round. Not mentioned in the video is where the fuse got its electric power from for the radar. Inside the fuse were small, fragile ampules of acid that were broken by the force of firing, and the spin of the projectile from the rifling forced that acid into a battery lining the outer wall of the fuse.

[sohomchatterjee]

Your channel just popped up in my it was worth it.

[blueshort]

Most underrated channel on YouTube. Fortunately, the algorithm gods have lead me here, and hopefully it will lead a lot of others too.

[stevess]

This channel is incredibly underrated. Why hasn't he gotten at least 500k subs yet?

[timg]

One of the unsung heroes of WWII.
The scientists who worked behind the scenes of WWII will never get enough credit.

[keithw]

Its funny how people talk about German wonderweapons like the Me-262 but a VT fuze for their 88mm AAA would have been far more effective than the jets.

[LovePotion_]

Holy shit this is pretty clever.
To think we had this during WWII. Man.

Makes me really wonder what we ACTUALLY have now.

[cenknithesergal]

I love how detailed everything is! Every video seems like a collage presentation and I love it!! ♡

[jukki]

This is the quality information i like to see

[anonymousstout]

I would not expect that one minute video could be this well narrated, I thought it was going to be meme or some random video from 2011

[Wolffjaeger]

More pls, even if it's only 1 or 2 minutes. It's a well compact educational video

[patttt]

I’m supposed to be in classes rn but I’m learning more here than my teachers could ever do

[johnray]

Interesting and succinct. Amazed that such technology existed back in WW2.

[julianofaland]

Who dislikes this you were promised a vid about the VT Fuze and you got it

[rochrich]

I heard that it was first deployed against ground targets during the Battle of the Bulge and helped stop that major attack.

[sheilaolfieway]

it's amazing how they got a radar which was usually 100 or more times the size of the fuse into a small fuse like that...