Originally Posted by Letum (Post 207029)

Frankly, I don't believe you and i would be surprised if many here do, not because such a claim is so extraordinary, but because your post's content doesn't show it to be true.
you are using it as a prop for arguments you don't have. It makes you look silly.




well, no bombs had a two second delay. the delay was a result of the number of revolutions the vane took.

Some 'direct' fuses used the vain to wind the hammer back, out of the bomb. both the hammer and the vain would move out, away from the bomb. Once it had wound back enough, the detonation charge would move by spring into the hole that the hammer used to occupy. The bomb is then live. On impact, the hammer would be forced back into the bomb and strike the detonator.

The hammer moves back because it is threaded like a bolt. the number of turns it takes to arm the bomb depends on the thread of the hammer and can not be adjusted.


More commonly, the vain would turn a set of gears. The gears had a ratio of either 20:1 or 60somethig:1 (I forget). The gears spin the hammer to line up with the detonator and make the bomb live. It takes one full rotation to line up the detonator (so 20 or 60sum turns of the vain). The number of turns it takes can no be adjusted.

I do not know how the electronic fuzes that became popular mid-late war worked.

As I said earlier in this thread; at the start of the war, ground crews used to turn the spinners/vanes round a few turns so that the bombs would arm more quickly for low-level attacks.

However, fuze designs where soon changed to prevent the ground crews doing this. I suppose someone thought it might be dangerous.



Yes, very much so.
The delay was caused mechanically, pyrotechnically or chemically and could be set to a wide variety of times. It had nothing to do with the arming part of the fuze.

Originally Posted by fruitbat (Post 207068)

fraps recorded at 1920*1200, 30fps and then virtualdub (which is free) with xvid codec compression.

Originally Posted by TheGrunch (Post 207047)

For a cargo ship, go down to 40-50m/150ft, drop when the ship's masts are either side of the reflector gunsight. That was in a Spitfire, though. I'll have a go in a bomber of some description, now. B-25 I think.

EDIT: Same deal in the B-25. In a shallow dive, go down to about 50-60m and drop when the ship's masts fill the whole reflector gunsight frame. Bomb delay 2s in addition to the arming delay for both. The angle you drop at is quite important. Better if it's shallower, but too shallow and it'll bounce too far.

Originally Posted by fruitbat (Post 207038)

lol, i was going to post that here, you saved me the trouble!!!!!!

Originally Posted by JtD (Post 207108)

Good thing about Letum is that he knows and understands stuff. Can't be said about everybody.

Originally Posted by Wutz (Post 207105)

Hi Fruitbat, thank you for your vid! Did a few test runs, changed my delay which was causing my plane being blasted, and dropping my bomb a bit earlier and it worked.
Only amusing thing is though that where in 4.09 3 sec delay was fine for a 800kg bomb, it is now deadly at 4.10. But with the delay changed and now releasing the bomb roughly at the same distance as in your vid and things are o.k. So it is doable.

Only thing not changed is my opinion of a certain smart alex.