‘They Were Ingenious Little Devils: Towards a History of the First Cluster Bomb’,

Despite being one of the most infamous weapons in modern history, surprising little academic literature has been produced on the cluster bomb and its European origins. This article works towards filling this gap in the historiography by revealing the unknown history of the first ever cluster bomb, known as the German SD2 Butterfly Bomb. By harnessing recently uncovered archival documents, alongside the oral/ written histories of the communities who fell victim to bomb, this article explains how the Butterfly Bomb added a new and terrifying dimension to European warfare, one which was directly adopted and adapted by the American military during the Korean and Vietnam wars and continues to devastate war-ravaged communities around the world today.