Alpha Bombs
Mr Bernoulli's accurate description of the Alpha and its use brought back some interesting memories and also served to remind me why one of the unwritten rules of Military Life is "Never volunteer!"
Just after the first operational use of the weapon a quality problem reared its head and a significant percentage were failing to explode. But I didn't know abut this when the CO strolled in one day and asked "Who knows what an Alpha looks like?" Since I had a mate who worked for the engineering company who had developed and manufactured them (and who had regaled me with stories of dropping prototypes from a high tower and recording the results with camera and stopwatch), I knew exactly what they looked like. So I engaged mouth before putting brain in gear and said "I do".
So, shortly thereafter, I found myself stepping out of an Alouette at the scene of the latest 'Contact' to find and retrieve some unexploded Alphas. I was given three RLI (Rhodesia Light Infantry) 'Troopies' as an escort (or to stop me running away!).
We found two bombs in fairly short order and radioed in an suitable RV location for uplift. An Alouette arrived about 30 mins later and we started to board. "Aren't those Alphas" says the driver; so I explained our task. "You're not putting those ****ing things in my A/C" So I explained again that we were tasked with the important job of getting these 'samples' back for analysis. "Not in my A/C your not!!" says he, followed by a pull on the Collective. The A\C then returned briefly and dropped a map case containing a chart on which was marked a RV point on a road about 7km away. It was a long walk, the more so since I noticed that my 'Escort' was definitely keeping its distance since the discussion by the helicopter. There were certainly no offers to help me with the load. (BTW Alfas are slightly smaller than Mr B describes; being just over 6in in diameter.)
I was met (by a trailer full of sandbags) at the RV and would like to think the incident helped, in a small way,make the Alfa into the success it was; it was even taken up by the SAAF and used with great success by their Canberras. But remember NEVER VOLUNTEER!