Simply put, it is the firing pin to set a bomb off, and the safety mechanism.
It screws into the back of the bomb, and the tail fin assembly is fitted over it. The tail fin assy. has a vane mounted on it with a shaft that engages with the U-shaped casting inside the wide end of the tail pistol.
When the bomb is dropped armed, the vane is spun by moving through the air which, via the shaft, causes the U-shaped casting to unscrew from the threaded rod inside the pistol, leaving the rod free to slide restrained only by the aforementioned retaining spring.
The forward end of the rod comes to a point. This is the firing pin, and on the bomb's impact would shoot forward to set off the detonator inside the bomb.
Nothing much to add except to say that the No 28 was the first Tail Pistol without arming vanes and was used exclusively on 250 and 500 pound GP Bombs Mk 4 bombs. The simple design was adapted and used in many of the later 'marks' of tail pistol.
The 'dimples' around the body engaged with a spring-clip locking ring. As the last couple of threads engaged when screwing it into the pocket it would start 'clicking' and when tight the ring would prevent it from loosening. The No 28 was also the last of the blunt striker pistols and had to be used with anvil type Detonators. The No 30 Pistol (or was it the No 29!) was identical apart from the striker being needle pointed and now used with what were called Sensitive Detonators. The anvil detonators required a percussive blow like the firing pin on a small arms cartridge. The sensitive detonator required only that the closing disc be pierced by the needle striker and friction initiated the det.
Not so many years ago a friend and I did some serious groundwork on acquiring three B-17 hulks from the USA with a view to combining them into one airworthy B-17G. At the time the banks were quite happy to cover the bulk of the expected budget, but before anything could come of it the crunch came along and that was the end of that plan.
Fast forward to today and later this week I'll be working on a B-17G rebuild in the USA, made up of those same three airframes... funny how things turn out.
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