Depth Bomb WWII Combat Effectiveness

This is a part 5 of a multipart video series addressing the contributions of the US bombers to the WWII anti-submarine efforts. An information rich look at the WWII tactics and depth bomb kill stores will be reviewed. The Key takeaways from video are: The aircraft will see the submarine before the submarine will see the aircraft. A depth bomb has a lethal range of around 25 feet. This depends on the explosive weight and type of explosive fill. Aim the center of the depth bomb train to detonate at the U-boats conning tower. The Depth bomb spacing is around 60 feet with hydro-static fuse setting to 25 feet. An aircraft’s window to drop the depth bombs is around 45 seconds from start of crash dive. This accounts for the U-boats 30 second crash dive and a 15 second underwater travel. Combat data indicates a 16% chance of sinking or probably sinking a U-boat if attacked on the surface or within the 15 second submergence window. No hits were scored when attacking submarines that submerged beyond 15 seconds.