General Purpose Bombs (GP)
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40 lb.., 250 lb.., 500 lb.., 1,000 lb.., 1,900 lb.., 4,000 lb..
Along with antiquated aircraft and bombing techniques some of which were left over's from World War I. Many of the general purpose bombs used by Bomber Command during the first two years of the war suffered from one serious short coming. This being that their metal weight to explosive ratio was seriously out of balance, in that there was too much metal and too little explosive. Add to this that entire inventories overall effectiveness was generally questionable in such that even if a bomber successfully reached the target and dropped its bomb load, there was no guarantee that the bombs would actually explode. Particularly troublesome were the 1,900 lb.. And 4,000 lb.. Designs. Development and production problems continued to plaque many of these designs and many of the 4,000 lb.. GP bombs continued in limited use until November 1943 and was only then removed from the Commands inventory due to fusing problems.
By the end of 1941, most of the smaller General Purpose bombs were being phased out in favor of newer Medium Capacity (MC) designs which had improved metal to explosive ratios and also proved more reliability and generally exploded on impact, unless fitted with delayed action fuses. By the summer of 1944 the Command's requirements for bombs of all sizes was immense as the demand continued to support the invasion forces wo were still attempting to established footholds in Europe after the D-day invasion. As a result a shortage of the MC bombs developed and bomb loads were supplemented by using the small 500 lb.. And 250 lb.. GP bombs which still remained in storage.
