You need to understand how explosive force dissipates in atmosphere.
You are 'in effect' attacking armor plate with a 'shock wave'. If the power of that 'shock wave' isn't enough to cause the plate to fail...it (the plate) doesn't really care.
If you want to outright 'kill' a Pz VIE with a bomb - hit it directly with the bomb.
The MA is learning why MBT kills reported by attack pilots in WW2 were almost always (honestly) overclaimed to a great degree.
If that bomb hit behind the Pz VIE, only 15' away, it probably would destroy the exhaust system components on the outside of the Pz VIE, and even start a small fire in the engine compartment.
The crew would hit the fire extinguishers and bail out - for 4 or 5 minutes. They'd then get back in the Pz VIE and either keep fighting or head back for repairs.
From the pilot's point of view: "Enemy tank started spewing smoke and crew bailed out".
This happened, again and again, in real life with the more sturdy MBTs in the war (mainly Pz VIE, Pz VIB, Pz V, Churchill VII, IS-2) unless they were hit by something that cleanly penetrated them.
AARs from German Pz units from '43 on are full or reports like the hypothetical one I typed above.
The bottom line is this - it was very rare for an MBT like a Pz VIE to ever 'explode'. The majority of the later German MBTs were lost when they were abandonded by the crew and could not be recovered. There wasn't alot around that could cause them to undergo a 'deathstar' like explosion - the main cause for such destruction would be fire getting to the stowed ammunition, which didn't happen 'instantly' very often as German ammunition stowage was fairly 'secure'.
Mike/wulfie
