The arming delay was adjustable by screwing in the fuse a bit which was done quite often in the field. The practice of pulling up at bomb release wasn't to put a ballistic arc on the flight of the bomb, it was to keep the bomb from bouncing up and striking the plane, which did, rarely, happen.

One thing I noted in the read is our inability in IL-2 to suppress defensive fire from the target.

About the only thing our escort fighters can do is help distract the AAA gunners rather than strafe and put a couple of MG's out for a short time

At the moment when attacking I generaly fire on my attack run using my convergence to guage the distance to target.

It would be good if we could direct our fire on the defensive guns or even the bridge to remove a coordinated defence.

Thanks for the link it's really good!