Best bombs against Oil and Industrial Targets

[Geoffrey Sinclair]

MAP Part 2

Type

2000AP

250SAP

500SAP

"B" TYPE

10/11.5PB

250PB

65LC

250LC

500LC

400SL

4 Inc.

30 Inc

Q1/39

20​

530​

146​

62​

8,914​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

40,342​

0​

Q2/39

18​

478​

80​

54​

3,430​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

51,633​

0​

Q3/39

10​

379​

119​

31​

9,574​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

51,936​

0​

Q4/39

7​

345​

220​

23​

12,042​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

14,141​

2,004​

Q1/40

0​

332​

307​

49​

12,105​

0​

0​

188​

0​

0​

4,800​

1,581​

Q2/40

0​

438​

251​

46​

13,934​

0​

0​

366​

0​

0​

49,701​

1,760​

Q3/40

0​

676​

248​

29​

13,242​

0​

0​

270​

0​

0​

31,482​

1,687​

Q4/40

4​

538​

211​

42​

9,233​

0​

0​

271​

0​

0​

9,333​

1,719​

Q1/41

10​

605​

270​

42​

9,643​

0​

0​

498​

0​

0​

5,854​

3,347​

Q2/41

13​

662​

528​

9​

9,600​

0​

0​

1,343​

0​

0​

12,790​

3,131​

Q3/41

18​

675​

659​

0​

12,839​

0​

469​

3,582​

0​

0​

71,911​

7,136​

Q4/41

22​

590​

835​

0​

14,431​

0​

5,037​

2,963​

0​

0​

121,619​

11,674​

Q1/42

50​

448​

1,320​

0​

20,374​

0​

5,618​

359​

0​

0​

177,180​

14,988​

Q2/42

57​

303​

1,748​

0​

24,392​

0​

6,610​

371​

0​

0​

203,713​

25,076​

Q3/42

48​

440​

1,777​

0​

27,677​

29​

8,702​

298​

0​

1​

248,349​

26,805​

Q4/42

70​

809​

2,067​

27​

33,704​

352​

9,204​

0​

0​

121​

288,199​

32,436​

Q1/43

95​

853​

1,935​

76​

41,965​

435​

8,396​

0​

12​

449​

490,368​

41,552​

Q2/43

121​

394​

1,044​

119​

53,810​

440​

3,587​

0​

369​

1,114​

664,475​

48,803​

Q3/43

50​

366​

881​

111​

53,732​

261​

2,152​

0​

782​

1,174​

715,515​

36,857​

Q4/43

115​

161​

801​

78​

63,657​

18​

1,327​

0​

1,313​

1,522​

827,827​

48,466​

Q1/44

62​

0​

255​

92​

67,519​

0​

1,097​

0​

1,966​

310​

871,872​

64,127​

Q2/44

29​

0​

142​

103​

60,159​

0​

1,057​

0​

671​

3​

802,568​

74,162​

Q3/44

0​

0​

0​

28​

22,355​

0​

1,591​

0​

272​

0​

610,356​

73,701​

Q4/44

0​

0​

0​

12​

10,842​

0​

2,935​

0​

771​

0​

455,899​

30,147​

Q1/45

0​

0​

0​

19​

0​

0​

2,594​

0​

1,007​

0​

222,268​

497​

Q2/45

0​

0​

0​

17​

0​

0​

2,076​

0​

518​

0​

130,685​

0​

Q3/45

0​

0​

0​

8​

0​

0​

1,156​

0​

169​

0​

0​

0​

Q4/45

0​

0​

0​

37​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

0​

1939​

0.7​

22.1​

7.3​

2.3​

438.7​

0.0​

0.0​

0.0​

0.0​

0.0​

2,031.1​

26.3​

1940​

0.0​

25.5​

13.1​

2.2​

627.6​

0.0​

0.0​

14.2​

0.0​

0.0​

1,241.7​

86.9​

1941​

0.8​

33.4​

30.4​

0.6​

610.2​

0.0​

78.0​

111.3​

0.0​

0.0​

2,868.3​

338.4​

1942​

2.9​

25.4​

88.2​

0.3​

1,354.6​

4.8​

385.8​

13.0​

0.0​

1.5​

11,665.6​

1,269.4​

1943​

5.0​

23.3​

61.3​

5.0​

2,829.6​

15.2​

208.1​

0.0​

33.1​

56.5​

35,762.1​

2,330.8​

1944​

1.1​

0.0​

5.0​

3.1​

2,071.4​

0.0​

87.1​

0.0​

47.7​

3.8​

35,337.0​

3,142.3​

1945​

0.0​

0.0​

0.0​

1.1​

0.0​

0.0​

75.7​

0.0​

22.2​

0.0​

4,474.2​

6.0​

 

[Reluctant Poster]

How common were Torpex filled HC bombs? I had thought that Torpex was only used in Tallboy and Grandslam bombs.

I just finished reading

According to this book the US starting filling 500 lb bombs with Composition B in April 1943. Approximately 25 % of bombs dropped by the USSAAF in Europe were comp B. Also it is lees clear about RAF usage but the first priority for Torpex was Tallboys with some use in 4000 and 500 lb bombs.

 

[JDCAVE]

I just finished reading
View attachment 739730
According to this book the US starting filling 500 lb bombs with Composition B in April 1943. Approximately 25 % of bombs dropped by the USSAAF in Europe were comp B. Also it is lees clear about RAF usage but the first priority for Torpex was Tallboys with some use in 4000 and 500 lb bombs.

I'm not sure how reliable Wikipedia is on the question, but the article on Torpex states "Besides torpedoes, naval mines, and depth charges, Torpex was only used in the Upkeep, Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs[3]as well as the drones employed in Operation Aphrodite."

Jim

 

[33k in the air]

I'm not sure how reliable Wikipedia is on the question, but the article on Torpex states "Besides torpedoes, naval mines, and depth charges, Torpex was only used in the Upkeep, Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs[3]as well as the drones employed in Operation Aphrodite."

Jim

According to the 1944 edition of AP 1661B — Volume I, British Bombs, Torpex was listed as a filling in the following bombs:

500 lb MC Mk XIII
1,000 lb MC Mk III
12,000 lb MC Mk I
22,000 lb MC Mk I

The 500 lb MC Mk XIII was also filled with either Amatol 50-50, Amatol 60-40, Amatol 80-20, Amatex, RDX/TNT, Minol-2, Pentolite D.1, or TNT.
The 1,000 lb MC Mk III was also filled with either RDX/TNT or Pentolite D.1.

What the distribution was of the fillings used is not stated.

 

[33k in the air]

Yes. There are different levels of details in the ORBs, month to month, and I'm sure you are right, that it has to do with who is filling it out. The 419 Squadron ORBs for November-1944, are quite sparse compared to other months.

A few years back I put together a list of RAF bomber squadron ORBs which contained the bomb load data for most or all of the aircraft assigned to a mission. It's far from exhaustive, but I did try to get a good variety of aircraft used. The Canadian squadrons, interestingly, were quite good overall at including the bomb load data. RAF squadrons, not as much. Some were good, white others didn't include the load data at all.

If anyone's curious, I can post the list and the months the ORBs contained the bomb load information.

The 405 Squadron ORBs are highly detailed. If the Intelligence Officer who was filling it out knew how much people such as ourselves spent looking at them 80 years later, perhaps they would have put more into it.

I'm a little surprised a specific format wasn't prescribed, given the military's penchant for paperwork and rules of procedure. But perhaps that applies to other forms and the ORBs were more up to the individual charged with recording them. I can't fault them for not including info that would be of interest to researchers eighty years later, as they had more pressing concerns at the time.

 

[33k in the air]

I just finished reading
View attachment 739730
According to this book the US starting filling 500 lb bombs with Composition B in April 1943. Approximately 25 % of bombs dropped by the USSAAF in Europe were comp B. Also it is lees clear about RAF usage but the first priority for Torpex was Tallboys with some use in 4000 and 500 lb bombs.

Thanks for mentioning that book.

However, I have skepticism over that 25% figure. On page 50 it states the 9th Air Force in March 1945 dropped 40,751 x 500-lb bombs and 2,830 x 1,000-lb bombs filled with Composition 'B'. But these numbers are at odds with a document that Geoffrey Sinclair posted in another thread which listed the number of bombs dropped by the aircraft types of the 9th Air Force from October 1943 through May 1945. According to that document, only 13,066 bombs of 500 lbs and 2,162 bombs of 1,000 lbs filled with Composition 'B' in total. These numbers are obviously far lower than what is listed in Baxter's book.

It's possible, of course, the document doesn't for whatever reason list all the Composition 'B'-filled GP bombs that were used. (The filling was used in several fragmentation bomb types.)

In terms of explosives production by the United States, OMPUS lists the following. Figures are in thousands of tons and is for July 1940 through August 1945.

6,688,835 — TNT (78.87%)
0,734,868 — RDX (8.66%)
0,326,374 — Ammonium Picrate (Explosive 'D') (3.85%)
0,058,324 — PETN (0.69%)
0,491,682 — Ammonium Nitrate (5.80%)
0,179,371 — Tetryl (2.11%)
0,001,864 — Lead Azide (0.02%)
8,481,318 — Total