3 ms·

I wonder what happened to the canon rounds that missed their target (that must have been most of them). There must be an entire region that must have gotten use

by stigi 11y ago

I wonder what happened to the canon rounds that missed their target (that must have been most of them). There must be an entire region that must have gotten used to raining 128-millimeter bullets.

douche 11y ago
Anti-aircraft shells were usually fused to explode at a given altitude. The proximity fuse was developed by the allies during the war, and was regarded as a top-secret piece of technology.
- InclinedPlane 11y ago
  Indeed, the VT fuze. It worked by using a tiny radio transmitter and receiver to detect proximity to the target. This was hugely effective both for anti-aircraft use and when attacking ground targets. WWII AA techniques had a hard time hitting aircraft. If you use bullets you can spray a lot of them near the aircraft but they have fairly limited range, and you use up a ton of ammo. With something like an artillery shell you can get the range to hit a distant aircraft but a solid shell would be useless as it would likely miss the aircraft, so you need to explode into a bunch of fragments. But even if you have good aim if the shell explodes only a little bit too early or too late then you won't hit anything, since the fragments have a short range. With the VT fuze you guarantee that the shell will explode near the aircraft if it's headed in the right direction. With ground targets there's the opposite problem. You can hit very close to a target, but if the shell explodes on the ground then most of the blast will be directed upward, and the only way you'd be able to hit the target is if it was sitting out in the open. If it's dug into even a shallow fox hole or depression then you'd have to get a direct hit. But if you can ensure the shell explodes at a specific height over the target then the fragmentation can fly downward, which can hit targets in a bigger radius than just near a surface blast.

by stigi 11y ago

I wonder what happened to the canon rounds that missed their target (that must have been most of them). There must be an entire region that must have gotten used to raining 128-millimeter bullets.

douche 11y ago

Anti-aircraft shells were usually fused to explode at a given altitude. The proximity fuse was developed by the allies during the war, and was regarded as a top-secret piece of technology.

InclinedPlane 11y ago
Indeed, the VT fuze. It worked by using a tiny radio transmitter and receiver to detect proximity to the target. This was hugely effective both for anti-aircraft use and when attacking ground targets. WWII AA techniques had a hard time hitting aircraft. If you use bullets you can spray a lot of them near the aircraft but they have fairly limited range, and you use up a ton of ammo. With something like an artillery shell you can get the range to hit a distant aircraft but a solid shell would be useless as it would likely miss the aircraft, so you need to explode into a bunch of fragments. But even if you have good aim if the shell explodes only a little bit too early or too late then you won't hit anything, since the fragments have a short range. With the VT fuze you guarantee that the shell will explode near the aircraft if it's headed in the right direction. With ground targets there's the opposite problem. You can hit very close to a target, but if the shell explodes on the ground then most of the blast will be directed upward, and the only way you'd be able to hit the target is if it was sitting out in the open. If it's dug into even a shallow fox hole or depression then you'd have to get a direct hit. But if you can ensure the shell explodes at a specific height over the target then the fragmentation can fly downward, which can hit targets in a bigger radius than just near a surface blast.