Exploding Too Early, Exploding Too Late – Inside SOE’s Unpredictable Time Pencils
Автор: Covert Arsenal
Загружено: 2026-01-28
Просмотров: 1
Описание:
A small metal tube, no larger than a pencil, sits buried inside a suitcase beside a block of explosive. There is no dial to set, no ticking mechanism to betray its presence. Only a coiled spring, a thin wire, and a glass ampoule decide when the charge will fire.
This film follows Britain’s Special Operations Executive as it tries to solve a simple but deadly problem: how to let an agent walk away from a target and still guarantee a delayed explosion. Clockwork and electrical systems were bulky, noisy, and fragile. Chemical delay fuses promised a cheap, silent alternative for railway lines, power stations, bridges, and briefcases left behind in occupied Europe.
We examine the SOE “time pencil” in detail: a corrosive solution eating through a restraining wire, a striker waiting to smash a percussion cap, and safety fuse burning toward the main charge. In controlled laboratories this looked predictable. In cold barns, hot train carriages, and damp cellars across Europe, temperature swings turned timing into guesswork, leaving some agents miles away—and others still dangerously close—when the blast finally came.
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