Rusian bombs filled whit wood scrap

[cipiamon]

I heard russians put their prisoners to work on the constructing of their bombs, and these guys filled the bomb whit wood scrap in sted of explosives. But not 100%, so the bomb wil explode, but not so hard.
An actual witness intervied by "Magazin Istoric" remebers the strikes from the soviet planes before the "Tydal Wave" wore kind of like jokes, there wore allmost no crater

[dragos]

It's hard to believe that weapons production by POWs was let unsurveilled. The difference between the effect of Soviet bombs and American bombs can be explained by percentage of explosive compared to weight of the bomb. Detailed explanation of this can be found here:

http://www.ww2guide.com/bombs.shtml

[Cristian Craciunoiu]

My grandma at 92 years told and retold the story of Soviet bombs fallen in Floreasca during a 1941 raid. They were filled with ...potatoes ! I heard this story so manny times from her and her cup of cofee friends that I wanted to share with you.

[dragos]

Well, a happy event in a time when the market was quite expensive, I presume. What was in the menu: fried potatoes or mashed potatoes ?

I think prisoners or convincts would have prefered to eat potatoes instead filling bombs with them.

[Dr_V]

If a bomb doesn't leave a big crated doesn't mean it has no effect. The main purpose is to cause a lot of damage around the impact point and that is aceived by the large explosion itself. I guess this idea about small craters was a propaganda thing to minimise the psihological effect of an aerial bombing on the troops.

The lack of a crater (or a disproportionately small one) on the impact point of a bomb may result from a variety of reasons:

There were models that had less explosive matherial and a lot of metal balls or schrapnells inside, to enlarge the killing area against infantry.

Not to mention that for a small bomb the kind of soil it explodes on it's also important. On solid rock the resulting crater is not impressive.

Of course there were malfunctions of unfortunate designs that caused a small crater. The usage of TOO MUCH explosive (or too powerfull) can do such a thing, but without reducing the effect on the enemy troops. A bad fuse can make a bomb explode in the air (very rarely) or not explode at all. A bomb designed to penetrate armor might not explode in water or in a soft place (as a swamp). A parachuted mine (delayed explosion bomb) can also malfunction and explode in the air or never at all.