German WW2 Bomb Delivery

[BreakingBad]

I've noticed in WW2 footage that German WW2 bombers dropped the bombs tail first from the bomb bay.  So the bombs then flip over eventually and travel down nose first.

Anyone know what the logic behind that was.

[gyrene81]

got any examples?  

bombs didn't drop from the hangers nose first all the time. watch enough videos and you will see they start horizontal, wobble a bit as they clear the fuselage and the wind catches them, then eventually nose down.

2:29 in this video shows the behavior of bombs dropping from b29s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g571TQHDvU

[Wayout]

The reason the He 111 and many other early war bombers carried their load vertically was that this was the only way to get the bombs to fit around the wing spars on a low wing aircraft. The Ju 88 had the same arrangement.

This arrangement was a trade-off by the designers that gave the aircraft better aerodynamic efficiency with the low wing design but limited the size of the bombs that could be carried and reduced their accuracy (vertically dropped bombs have to tumble as they come out of the bomb bay causing them to scatter more than ones dropped horizontally).

[gyrene81]

nice catch Wayout...i knew the 111 carried the bombs in an "unusual" manner, didn't realize the 88s did the same thing. weren't they hung in the racks nose down?

[cpxxx]

Wayout nailed it. That was the problem with German bombers. One of a number of things where they got it wrong. But we're all Monday morning quarterbacks on that subject.