Realistically there is no way a bomb explodes from gunfire. Bombs are typically made using a high explosive like TNT or something similar. TNT can be set on fire or melted without detonating. It is also encased in many inches of metal, and honestly a .50 cal round likely would not penetrate through a bomb casing. The high explosives in bombs can only be set off by the detonator attached to the fuse of the bomb. Playing British bombers, many players take advantage of their weak defensive armament underneath and end up detonating the whole plane in a few shots due to this mechanic.
My suggestion is either to remove this entirely or just disable the bombs if they are shot. A bomb could be rendered ineffective from damage due to gunfire but it would not detonate the bomb.
Bombs didn’t use only TNT as explosive charge but mixture of explosives with smaller percentage of TNT.
Also why do you think .50cal AP would not penetrate bomb casing when that casing wasn’t armored but made of metal thick enough to hold explosive which had break apart easily?
Many high explosives are even more insensitive than TNT. Bomb casings are typically half an inch to several inches thick, so only a direct perpendicular hit to a bomb casing would result in a penetration. In the USS Forrestal fire several bombs went off as the result of a jet fuel fire, which was considered impossible, and they only detonated due to the bombs being old and rusty, resulting in leaking parrafin and chemically degraded explosive.
Yeah, no. Bombs exploding when penetrated is realistic.
Not realistic yet we have had document proof of this happening. It also doesn’t take one-for-one for me to shoot a bomb that is underneath your plane not protected by any form of metal or your bomb being exposed to the environment if I vertically climb upwards and shoot at it. You also did not provide any proof to back up your claim or a poll. There this is probably going to be looked at and ignored although this depends on the Suggestion moderators if it will be passed down or not.
Well, it happens IRL. It was particularly noted when intercepting V1 flying bombs over Britain. The large explosion was a danger to the fighters, so some adopted the “wing tipping” technique to veer the V1 off course.
The V1’s warhead is amatol, the same as other aircraft bombs.
That is sustained fire on a single bomb, and one with a thin casing and volatile fuel in close proximity. In this game, a glancing blow to a bomb with a stray .50 cal or 20mm bullet can detonate a thick-case GP bomb in the bomb bay of a bomber.
There are lots more stories of bombers returning home shot to pieces but not being blown up, and even undetonated bombs that fell 20000 feet and didn’t go off when slamming into the ground.
They need to consult an explosives expert. Bombs aren’t filled with tannerite. I don’t exactly know what ww2 bombs were filled on average but TNT and especially RDX is very hard to detonate without a proper fuse.
The tips of bombs are always the thickest this is what allows bombs to fall straight down. If it doesn’t detonate that is because the bomb had a false fuse.
It’s not completely unrealistic as the SOP for planes returning to airfield/carrier is to drop all unexploded ordnance due to the danger of exploding upon landing. If shaking from landing might cause an explosion, bullets certainly do.
Ah no. They dropped the ordinance to lighten the aircraft so that they were easier/safer to land at lower airspeeds. And also if the plane crashed and caught fire there would not be an additional UXO hazard.
Bombers exploded all the time from bombs being hit during WW2 showering all around them. Same as ammo detonates when being hit. So many types of bombs around back then.
I fly the Italian 110 a lot with the 1000lb bomb underneath and to my knowledge only ever been hit once to cause bomb to explode. PE8 not once in many missions with huge external bomb. Not really an issue.
They ditched the bombs for all of the reasons mentioned. Weight on the undercarriage, Fear of explosion, Fire.
Crews often could not wait to drop their ordnance and in many cases young fearful crew just dropped the bombs in a random field and came home early. I know that from talking to WW2 airmen.
No they did not. There were hundreds of thousands of sorties flown during WWII and there are only a handful of cases of aircraft exploding in mid air and more likely most of those were fuel-air explosions.
There is another thread about this:
Yes, doesn’t matter. Your proceeding statement was incorrect.
Of course, they did and you can see film of it happening. It’s no secret.
I have seen ammunition dumps explode personally when hit with MG fire.
Bombs explode while stored on the ground and while being carried by Aircraft.
One thing you learn in a real warfare situation is that there are no hard fast rules for anything. If you can imagine it then it happens plus a number of things you could never have imagined.
There are also reports of the exact opposite happening where it has been extremely difficult to get a bomb to explode and they have been incredibly resilient to enemy fire.
Biggest mistake in studying history is to say this never happened or that never happened. How often things happened are of course open to debate. Like I said to my knowledge I have only had one bomb explode in War Thunder, so it really makes no difference.
V1 was not heavily ‘armoured’ and did not have a thick casing like bombs due to weight restrictions. plus it carried rocket fuel… C-stoff and H-stoff which are notorious for exploding and being volatile
I didn’t say it never happened. I said it was so rare that it should not be modelled as such in this game.
As someone who has shot .50 cal at 122mm shell IEDs in Iraq (it doesn’t work) , I’ll take my opinion over someone who is a videogame expert.
false association fallacy right here.
shaking was not the issue. crashes resulting from fast landings leading to catastrophic detonations were the issue.