I've been trying out the Wellingtons with the 2000lb MkIV AP bomb. It has only one choice for detonator, "Detonator No. 30 Mk I Fuse".
It seems to explode inconsistently, or perhaps not at all?, when dropped from low altitudes.
It seems like it usually works (meaning, expldoes) when dropped from 1500 feet or above, usually when dropped from 1200 feet (AGL) or so, and usually not when dropped below that. But then - sometimes it DOES seem to randomly explode when dropped below 500 ft AGL or so.
Does anyone know the magic formula? Is there a certain altitude where it becomes armed, a certain velocity it must hit at, or something else?
There are a couple of interesting historical articles online with info about the bomb:
https://www.bulletpicker.com/bomb_-2...1_-mk-2_-.html
https://stephentaylorhistorian.files...e-ordnance.pdf (p. 43-48 for the bomb and 193-198 for the fuses).
They mention it is armor piercing, designed to penetrate heavily armored targets such as capital ships, and does not detonate until after the target is penetrated. Also No. 30 is a tail fuze.
This page has more detailed information about British WW2-era fuzes: https://stephentaylorhistorian.com/2...nators-of-ww2/
Assuming this is No. 30 fuze mentioned on p. 267 there, it is armed via approx. 480 vane revolutions, which happen when the bomb is dropped into the wind stream, causing the vane to rotate. I don't know how long it would take to rotate that vane 480 revolutions, but I'm guessing it is a few seconds at least, which might explain lack of detonation at low altitudes, as I observed.
Presumably the arming mechanism via vane revolutions is to keep the bomb from being armed until it is dropped, and then to insure it is not armed until for a period afterwards so that the bomber is guaranteed to be a decent distance away before detonation is possible.
However I don't know exactly how that might translate into implementation in CloD, and what it might take to ensure that bomb explodes when dropped. A certain height, a certain number of seconds, something else?
Any ideas?
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