Unexploded Ordinance

[Halon]

Did some level bombing this evening on Finnish from 5000m using a PE-2 with a bomb load of 10 bombs, accidentally set to 3 seconds but didn't think this would matter. Dropped them and turned for home, the stats didn't report any damage. However after reviewing the footage I can see that I actually hit plenty of targets, about five disappeared into large buildings that look like gas holders and the rest landed in and around a couple of AAA pits.

 

Strangely none of them exploded in the usual way and I can't figure out why, I didn't play with the fuses, was it something to do with the altitude? Did it need to be set to contact? Disappointed it didn't work out given how tricky level bombing is!

[Jade_Monkey]

Yes, dropping them too low will cause them to not explode. Can't remember the exact numbers but I'd recommend dropping at 50m or above the target.

[Halon]

On this occasion I was very much above 50m, about 4950m above.

[Charlo-VRde]

I've had the same experience as the OP and just assumed that when level bombing I needed to set the fuses to "on contact". More than once on an MP server I have realized after taking off in a bomber that I couldn't remember if I had changed the fuses to "on contact", so returned to base to restart the mission.

 

I'm guessing the fuse timings available to us must also include upon release a time period after which the fuses become inactive, since that must be why anything other than "on contact" won't detonate from level bombing.

[TP_Jacko]

To drop from 5km should not be a problem to arm the fuses. You could try 5 second to see if it makes a difference. It could be a mission designer point. Not every object counts to the score the builder needs to make them destroyable. Were you bombing a designated target area or an area away from a dseignated target area.

 

[Halon]

Designated target, one of the rear depots on Finnish server. But the fact none of them detonated makes me think it was bomb related rather than target, as some hit buildings, others AAA and a few just mud.

[Nadelbaum]

I have had similar experience except that the bombs detonated, at least visually. No damage whatsoever to the depot (this was also on Finnish server). Checked the logs too.

 

This experience is so far only from P38 and the 1000 lbs M65 bombs. Never had any issue with A20 or Il-2 with bombs.

 

Weird...

[[DBS]TH0R]

On 10/9/2021 at 12:19 AM, TP_Jacko said:

To drop from 5km should not be a problem to arm the fuses. You could try 5 second to see if it makes a difference. It could be a mission designer point. Not every object counts to the score the builder needs to make them destroyable. Were you bombing a designated target area or an area away from a dseignated target area.

 

 

For low level skip bombing definitely set 5 second delay. 3 seconds often don't arm unless dropped from '50m altitude and they have sufficient time to arm.

[Charon]

I wonder if it's possible that you accidentally toggled bomb-arming off. Is it bound? Is it something you could have hit by mistake?

[Halon]

Had the same issue again today decent spread of bombs on target from 5k but no detonation. I do have the bomb-arming bound simply to check to make sure its on, its not easy to hit though. Starting to get slightly annoyed with myself! I'm clearly doing something wrong. I would say it does just seem to be an issue with level bombing, I've done plenty of dive bombing in the PE-2 on Finnish with good results.

Edited October 17, 2021 by Halon

[Halon]

Mystery solved, for some reason online myself defaults to defused bombs. So trying to figure it out in SP wasn't going to help, I just noticed with Techno chat enabled that it mentioned they were defused, this prompt happened to be buried in the start up Techno chat. I suspect its probably to do with it being bound to stick as my settings are always different online.