Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 145:
Description
WWII U.S. Bomb Fuze Transit Tin for AN-M100A1 Tail Fuze, AN-M103 Nose Fuze, and Arming Wire Assembly – Empty Offered here is a rectangular sheet-metal transit and storage tin manufactured for U.S. ordnance forces during the Second World War, designed to hold a matched set of aircraft bomb fuzes prior to their installation. The original contents label, still largely intact and legible despite abrasion, reads "1-AN-M100A1 TAIL BOMB FUZE, COMPLETE / 1-AN-M103 NOSE BOMB FUZE, COMPLETE / 1-ARMING WIRE ASSEMBLY / PACKED" – a plain but evocative piece of ordnance packaging that speaks directly to the mechanics of arming a bomb before it left the ground. No separate biography attaches to a piece of this kind; its story is told entirely through its markings and its place in the broader logistical chain of American aerial ordnance. General-purpose bombs used by the Army Air Forces and Navy – among them the 100-lb AN-M30 and 500-lb AN-M64 – were shipped and stored unfuzed as a critical safety measure, since an armed fuze rendered a bomb live and hazardous to handle. Sealed tins such as this one were packed at ordnance depots with a specific nose-and-tail fuze combination, in this instance the AN-M103 mechanical impact nose fuze paired with the AN-M100A1 tail fuze, together with the arming wire assembly that would later be threaded through the fuze vanes and secured to the bomb rack. Ordnance crews at airfields across the European, Pacific, and China-Burma-India theaters broke open tins of this type in the final stages of bomb-up, fitting the fuzes only shortly before a bomb was loaded aboard its aircraft – a routine but essential task repeated thousands of times daily at forward air bases during the height of the strategic and tactical bombing campaigns of 1942-1945. The tin is of rectangular form with rounded corners and a fitted slip lid, finished in black-painted sheet metal with soldered seam construction. A large light-colored paper contents label is affixed to one face, its printed designations for the AN-M100A1 and AN-M103 remaining readable through scattered surface abrasion and toning. No contractor marking or production date is apparent in the photographed views. The tin is empty, as offered; no fuzes, vanes, or arming wire are present. The exterior shows moderate scattered surface scratching, paint loss, and scuffing consistent with genuine field handling and depot storage, while the interior is clean with only mild surface oxidation visible along the soldered seams. A humble but genuine relic of WWII aerial ordnance infrastructure, this fuze tin offers collectors an affordable, display-ready artifact tied directly to the arming and loading of American bombs in the global air war.
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