Bombing Tanks
 

Again I'm interested more in reality rather than the game. What bombs can get what tanks and where should the bomb hit the tank to disable it?
Would a fab-50 kill anything? Would a SC250 kill anything? What bomb would be needed to disable a T34/76, a Tiger or a King Tiger?

and one more question. If the bombs are in a central rack, such as the BF110G2 and C4/B, does that mean that they can drop them one by one, or do they still have to drop them altogether to maintain balance?

A lot of what-ifs in these questions. Like what-if the bomb (given a two-second delay) was under the tank when it went off? Or, whether it was under a track, for example. Close enough to concuss the crew, or buried deep in mud so as to lose its potential force or instead create a crater that the tank falls into or whatever. I don't think there are any clear answers to questions like this.

As someone said in an earlier thread - a moving tank is a threat, while a stalled tank is a target. Or something like that. Outside of games, the effects are far more arbitrary than a kill or a miss.

B

Depends on the tank too. Allot of different scenarios...

Probably...a very large bomb like a 500kg/1000lb is likely to punch through just about anything if its a direct hit and even if it didn't it'd make a pretty good crater.

Smaller bombs might...for lighter tanks. Or might just bounce harmlessly off. Small AP bombs like the one in the AB500 bombs in the German aircraft apparently could do quite a number.

Depends on what it hits and where on the tank. Also if the tank is towing anything or has stored materials on the top that may have some impact on what happens later as well.

Yes indeed - many different ways it can go. The result also depends on what the tank is doing at the time it is attacked. In a tank battle it may be sufficient just to concuss the crew or disable the driver or the commander or force the crew to bail out. Just forcing the tank to halt may allow opposing artillery to zero in on it and destroy it. 'Luck' plays a part too. A lucky impact may dismount or jam the turret, or dislodge a track or whatever. The main point is bringing the machine to a full stop.

Contrary to heroic myths, most crews would bail out if their tank was hit in this way.

B

I'm interested in direct hits only of various sizes of bombs on tanks and their ability to disable the tank itself or kill the crew, but I see that you aren't aware of such data (bomb size vs. top armour).

It's never that simple. If a bomb hits a tank, with a 2 second delay fuse, unless the bomb is embeded into the armour by the impact, by the time the bomb goes off the bomb may well be 200 metres away from the tank. You have to use a delay fuse at low level, or your own bomb will shoot you down.

<edit> If you mean what size of bomb would be too small to seriously damage a tank if it went off in direct contact with it, the answer would be very small. Anti-personnel grenades probably wouldn't, unless they could be placed inside, antipersonnel mines probably wouldn't. Anti-tank mines are designed to do exactly that, and they are what, 10kg? 20kg? So, a bigger bomb than that, in contact, would probably do the business.

I think you're after something more absolute than is possible. There are studies about the effectiveness of airpower versus armored vehicles that I'm sure you can find. But I think a very detailed analysis will be hard to come by...

Besides all that, I very much doubt that there were many direct hits (by bombs) on tanks. Direct hits on Ships were rare and they are much bigger. I'd venture to say though that I'd doubt many tanks would survive a bomb of more than 100 lb exploding in direct contact with it's top armour. I'd imagine a direct hit by anything over 1000 lb would result in a crater surrounded by with tank parts. Of course these are just speculation, and like Icefire pointed out that's all you'll likely get.