How Many Bombs For A Factory?

[Mongoose]

  Ok, here's a question for you bomber pilots.

  How many 1,000 pound bombs would it take to shut down a factory?  If I were to kill the radar factory, for instance, how many bombs, and how far apart would I need to space them?

  I normally fly fighters, but I am curious about the logistics of taking out one of the factories.  

[Lusche]

 How many 1,000 pound bombs would it take to shut down a factory?  If I were to kill the radar factory, for instance, how many bombs, and how far apart would I need to space them?

The factories are large and require a lot of bombs. I found that I could get the ammo factory down to about 20% with the 12x1000 lbs loadout in a B-29 formation. And this with a very precise, manual (no salvo) bombardment and 3-4 passes dropping 3 to 4 bombs each pass.
The proper 'spacing' is best being learned by doing. You will get a feel for it while you are manually pickling bomb for bomb.
One way to learn it would be to go offline (or create personal arena), uncheck "protect objects", go to the airfield next to your sides strats and bomb them. That way you have very short transit time and no AA fire while you observe your bombing results.

If wanted, I could browse my films for some B-29 bombardment sequences.

[Mongoose]

The factories are large and require a lot of bombs. I found that I could get the ammo factory down to about 20% with the 12x1000 lbs loadout in a B-29 formation.

Thanks for the info.  I was gathering information for planning a specific mission.  I don't think it will work if it requires that many bombs.  Oh, well.

[Lusche]

Get a buddy. Two formations B-17 carry as many 1000lb bombs as one formation B-29. If you plan your approach well (and survive), you only need two passes for a factory.

[SmokinLoon]

Another thing to think about is just how long do you want to hang out in the puffy ack and make yourself available to interception by Komets, etc.  I really enjoy taking B29's loaded with the 40/500lb bombs and making about 6 passes over the city and ammo factory.  The best so far for me has been to get them both under %70, not bad from a single set of bombers.  Three sets of B29's with any sort of ability to pattern their flight paths would make for some real headaches.   

If you are going to make 1 or 2 passes then I suggest you arm yourself with 2000 lb bombs.  The blast radius is that much larger than the 1000 lb bombs to make it worth while.  The 2000 lb bombs provide a larger side to side spread of destruction so you will get the most out of a single pass, or even 2 passes.  Someday I envision having my entire squad take B24's armed with the 2000 lb bombs and hammer nothing but the factory targets using 2 swipes.       

[Lusche]

A single formation of B-29s can bring down the City below 40% That takes about 30-40 minutes time over target.
I usually spare a few bombs for the AA towers and an occasional dar on my way in, so I am satisfied with getting the city about 50% down.