A while ago I posted some data on the effectiveness of high explosive rounds. Recently, a similar infographic came up, but for bombs. I thought it would be interesting to compare the results of the two. The first sequence shows the size of the hole a bomb makes in the ground (the height and radius) and the second shows how far the shockwave travels.
The smallest of the bunch is the 50 kg bomb, forming a 2.4 meter deep crater 2.2 meters in radius. This is comparable to the effect of a 152 mm HE shell, which creates a wider crater (2.5 meters in radius), but a shallower one (1.8 meters deep). The shockwave from such a bomb would travel for 12 meters. Unfortunately, no fragmentation effect is given for the bomb, nor an explosive effect for the shell, so it's hard to compare. We can compare the appreciable difference between the smallest bomb in the Soviet arsenal and the largest shell at the corps artillery level.
Via Valeriy Lisyutin.
Big craters are not necessarily useful at all. Yes, the reflect effectiveness against some types of bunkers in direct hits or very near misses, and you want cratering if you're able to land a bomb or large shell very near a trench, but it's generally a waste of energy. Airbursts or very instantaneous fuses.
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