The new bomb fuzing needs to be an option.

[JtD]

Originally Posted by swiss

Ok, why did you doubt it before?

Like I said, you said this was not about skip bombing and the next statement is that the bomb penetrates the hull. Only that left me to wonder which hulls.

The point is that 4-5 seconds delay were used for US skip bombing because that would make the bomb go off in the vicinity of the ship even if it sunk before the ship or went right over or through it. With 14 seconds delay the bomb will go off very deep in the water, lessening the damage, and also the ship will have moved a considerable distance, even an average steamer could have covered a complete ship length in that time.

At any rate, my comment on the 14 seconds delay were not directed at the feasibility of skip bombing as such, rather the general problems associated with a long fuse - ground penetration, skipping, rolling, rebounding, moving targets moving away - all of which making an accurate and devastating attack difficult.

Regarding my track, it wasn't meant to show the most elegant way of skip bombing, only to show that altitude does not matter. I released these bombs at about 10m, clearly below the 25 you thought would also be a limit.

Not that it matters much in practice. The bomb lobbing is pretty difficult to do and offers no benefits over a level attack 20 m higher.