Contact fuze

A contact fuze, impact fuze, percussion fuze or direct-action (D.A.) fuze (UK) is the fuze that is placed in the nose of a bomb or shell so that it will detonate on contact with a hard surface.

Many impacts are unpredictable: they may involve a soft surface, or an off-axis grazing impact. The pure contact fuze is often unreliable in such cases and so a more sensitive graze fuze or inertia fuze is used instead. The two types are often combined in the same mechanism.^[1]

^ Fuze, D.A. and Percussion, No. 119, Fletcher, David (1983) [1944]. "Ammunition, 95mm, Tank Howitzer". Churchill Tank (Reprint of original WW2 operating manuals ed.). HMSO / Bovington Tank Museum. pp. 85–87. ISBN 0-11-290404-1.

[Fletcher,_Churchill_Tank,_Fuze_119-1] Fuze, D.A. and Percussion, No. 119, Fletcher, David (1983) [1944]. "Ammunition, 95mm, Tank Howitzer". Churchill Tank (Reprint of original WW2 operating manuals ed.). HMSO / Bovington Tank Museum. pp. 85–87. ISBN 0-11-290404-1.

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