What kind of bombs were used in World War II?

Answer 1

The majority of bombs used in the Second World War were 'conventional' High Explosive (HE) devices, although many incendiary devices and two nuclear explosive devices were also used.

The chemical explosives were primarily TNT (Tri-Nitro-Toluene), RDX (Research Department eXplosive) and PETN (PentaErythritol TetraNitrate).

The incendiary devices commonly contained chemical explosives plus flammable materials such as magnesium, phosphorus, or fuels in liquid or gelled form.

Very roughly two and a half million tons of bombs were dropped in total, perhaps twice as much as the total used in ground-based weapons in the war.

Near the end of the war, in August 1945, the United States Air Force dropped two atomic bombs on cities in Japan. On 6 August a uranium fission device codenamed 'Little Boy' was dropped on Hiroshima and a plutonium fission device codenamed 'Fat Man' was dropped on Nagasaki three days later. The two bombs had the equivalent explosive powers of very roughly 16,000 and 21,000 tonnes of TNT respectively. Japan surrendered a few days later. These two atomic bombs are the only examples of the use of nuclear weapons in war.

There is still some debate over the role of the atomic bombings in the final days of the war but there is little dissent about their horrors. It must be said that the horrors of conventional warfare and atomic warfare are similar, for example the bombing of the German city of Dresden in February 1945 with several thousand tonnes of conventional explosives and incendiaries produced results not unlike those of the atomic bombings in Japan, if not on quite so large a scale. The three cities, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden, were all essentially destroyed and tens or hundreds of thousands of people suffered unspeakably.

Hydrogen (fusion) bombs, which can be made to produce very much greater destructive power than fission bombs, had not been developed by the end of the Second World War and none has -- yet -- been used in anger.

Answer 2

High Explosive (HE) aka General Purpose (GP)

Inciendiary (fire - magnesium or napalm) and

Butterfly (antipersonnel),

and the Atomic (Fission - 1-Uranium and 1-Plutonium) bombs

Answer 3

It was the British "Grand Slam" bomb, which was 22,000 lbs. or nearly ten ton. Only 41 were ever dropped from specially adapted Lancaster Bombers of 617 squadron based at Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire, UK.

Obviously that was the biggest CONVENTIONAL high explosive,(HE) bomb!

The Tallboy bomb was half the size at 12,000 lb and was more commonly used. Both the Grand Slam and Tallboy were designed by Barnes Wallis, and both had pointy noses to penetrate the ground and cause an earthquake effect upon detonation.

Answer 4

I dislike telling you this. The bombs that were dropped were measured in "pounds or kilos dropped" not by each individual bomb. They dropped many millions of pounds of bombs worldwide and in Europe during World War 2. (I would suspect there was over 5 million pounds or more dropped but I could not find you an exact figure. My suggestion is to checkout each battle and find out how many pounds of bombs were dropped during each one and add them all up.) I found one web site figure for you but it is not all the bombs in the war, see related link below.

Answer 5

Between 1939 and 1945, the Allies dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs.

Answer 6

If you mean bombs for dropping from aircraft, there were lots of different sizes ranging from 20lb to 22,000lb high explosive bombs. Of course there were also 2 nuclear bombs dropped in 1945.

Answer 7

atomic bombs and grenades

Answer 8

doodle bug