VIIIUSAAF and BC failures at the Wesel bridges.

[Bill Walker]

The conclusions drawn are accurate enough, but what is really interesting is what is not said:

500 lb bombs, with low percentage charge and no special penetrating characteristics, will require large numbers of direct hits to damage a concrete or steel bridge.

With a 300 yard MPI, the percentage of direct hits is very low.

The end result is that the best technology available to the Allies at the time was very ineffective in destroying bridges. However, scattering bombs like this for a few hundred yards around a heavily used bridge would certainly disrupt the German supply efforts, at least temporarily. I suspect that when they say "such targets" they are referring to more than just the bridge itself.