This British designed bomb contained approximately 60 type G skymarker candles which gave either red, green or yellow illumination for a duration of approximately 3 minutes for the red and green candles and 5 minutes for the yellow.
The actual weight of the bomb was 220 lbs with an overall length including the tail of approximately 62 inches. The diameter being approximately 12 inches.
The bomb body consisted of a steel tube to which at one end was welded a steel nose. A tail plate held in place by six brass rivets closed the tail end of the bomb body. The tail plate had two bayonet slots and a hole to be engaged by pins on a transit base while the bomb was in transit or storage, or by the securing screws on a tail unit when the bomb was prepared for use.
In the nose was a cast iron weight and a burster container, with a flash hole at its inner end, housing a burster charge, consisting of approximately 3 ozs of gunpowder for ejecting the candles from the bomb body.
A suspension lug welded to the body permited the bomb to be attached to the Universal or similar type of bomb carrier
With the exception of the suspension lug the bombs were painted black all over, but around the nose plug was a painted band 1/2 inch wide to indicate the colour of the illumination given by the candles contained in the bomb. A red painted band 1/2 inch wide and approximately 8 inches from the end of the nose denoted that the bomb was filled.
When the bomb is released the fuze armed, the arming vanes rotated off and when it had fallen to a height of approximately 3,000 feet the gunpowder in the fuze magazine fired and initiated the burster charge . The pressure sheared the brass rivets holding the tail in place and the candles were ejected from the rear of the bomb. The candles were already ignited when they were ejected from the bomb and they took about 20 – 25 seconds to fall to the ground, suspended from their individual parachutes, where they formed a distinctive group and continued to burn until expended.
