The most common type of bomb dropped, during WWII was the general purpose high explosive demolition bomb. This bomb ranged in size from 40 lbs to 4,000 lbs. The most common size was the 500 lbs class. These bombs wrecked havoc on structures, personnel, and armor. The bombs destructive power came from both the detonation shock wave and the steel casing’s fragments. A bomb detonating near a human could suffer from ruptured eardrums, injury and death from the bombs impulse shock wave alone. The distances from detonation will be defined based on period documentation. We will also discuss the bombs effect on buildings, armor, earth and concrete.
Edit: The units of 500 G.P. bomb concrete penetration should be in feet not inches.