Bomb fuses.....

[Knarley-Bob]

Is it reality that one needed approx. 3000ft altitude for bombs to go off? Even contact setting? I thought one could arm them manually from the cockpit.

They show that in some movies, but that's in the movies.... Swooping in and laying an egg on a tank is tuff from way up yonder, don't 'cha think?

Please, enlighten me..........?

Edited October 14, 2022 by Knarley-Bob

[DD_Arthur]

1 hour ago, Knarley-Bob said:

Please, enlighten me..........?

Give them a 5 second delay.

[Cpt_Siddy]

 

[Charon]

3 hours ago, Knarley-Bob said:

Is it reality that one needed approx. 3000ft altitude for bombs to go off? Even contact settings?

Depends on the fuse. For the USAAF, an AM-103 fuse seems to have been suitable for general purpose use, and perhaps was typical; it had a minimum arming altitude of 450ft (instantaneous) at 200mph, or 210ft with a 0.1s delay. See pages 58, 148. The M163/164, on the other hand, need 1700ft.

 

But if anything, bombing in game is far too accurate. Most people take 5s fuses so they can safely drop bombs precisely, yet that sort of minimum altitude bombing was the exception rather than the rule. A delay fuse means the bomb ought to waste most of its effect into the ground (with some shrapnel thrown upwards, where it doesn't do much good either). The game, however, doesn't model this, so there's no reason to ever bother with the harder to use instantaneous fuses, and thus there's little reason to bother with tricky techniques like dive-bombing.

[Knarley-Bob]

So, dive bombing, with a fighter, such as a P-47, isn't the way, what is?

[=FEW=fernando11]

As far as I know, the boms fuses  are a bit simplified in game.

 

IRL there where diferent fuses for diferent nations, and diferent aplication/targets.

 

There are 2 diferent things  going on in a bomb, first a TIME (altitude) for the bomb TO ARM itself so it will explode. And the time the FUSE will take between being triggered (hitting the ground or something) and actually exploding.

Normaly you would want a quick fuse for an instant explosion, but a longer arming time of the bomb, so you don't blow yourself if you drop too low by accident, this means if you drop too low, the bomb won't arm itself, so it will not explode. But you dont get killed either. 

Or a short arming time, so you can drop very low, but the fuse has to be longer so you dont blow yourself up.

 

The game shows you the fuse time (time from impact to boom) but it doesnt show you the arming time.  And it's sort of general knlowledge that 5 seconds is the shortes time that will make the bomb arm and explode from prety much any altitude.

 

In short,  instant explosion (contact fuse) need a higer drop (longer arming time), so you either drop high enugh, or the bombs don't arm/explode.

 

On the other hand, a longer fuse (5 seconds or more) means the bomb explodes well after it hits the ground, giving you (and the target) some time to get away from the blast, BUT the bomb arms itself almost instantly, meaning you can drop the bomb from almost as low as you want and IT WILL explode.

I say almost, because quite a while back I managed to drop 50kg bombs on tanks SO LOW that the bombs didnt arm, even with 5 second fuse.

[Jaws2002]

Another thing, the fuses weren't a 100% reliable either. Just because you use a delay fuse, it doesn't 100% guaranty the bomb won't blow up on impact, so dropping bombs from very low altitude was not the rule, it was the exception. There were many scenarios where it was the best option, but it wasn't the safest one.

 I agree that the extreme low level bombing is quite overused in game and makes bombing way too easy.

 Just look back in ww2 how many sorties and planes it took to destroy a bridge. With the low level release and bomb delay, in game you simply can't miss.

Edited October 15, 2022 by Jaws2002

[Knarley-Bob]

I know that with tanks/vehicles, one has to lead the target, letting them drive over the bomb. If one hits the tank, would the bomb bounce off? And with 'skip' bombing say a ship, does it bounce off the hull if on a timed delay? If one needs to factor in "air time" for the bomb to arm, how do you factor that in?

At this point I'm terrible at bombing and strafing, I lawn dart way to often.

[R33GZ]

The idea with skip bombing was that the kinetic energy generated by the bomb would penetrate the hull and explode inside the vessel... Even if it did not penetrate, an explosion next to the hull, under water, would create structural damage. 

 

I find a 2 second fuse is enough time to get away from the blast area and not have to lead the target too much, although my aimpoint is still up near the bow. 

Edited October 15, 2022 by R33GZ

[Knarley-Bob]

1 hour ago, R33GZ said:

The idea with skip bombing was that the kinetic energy generated by the bomb would penetrate the hull and explode inside the vessel... Even if it did not penetrate, an explosion next to the hull, under water, would create structural damage. 

 

I find a 2 second fuse is enough time to get away from the blast area and not have to lead the target too much, although my aimpoint is still up near the bow. 

Aiming at the bow would be best.........?