Why do You Have to ‘Get Down’ and Drop on the Floor During a Bombing?
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The most dangerous part of most bombs is not the shockwave, it’s shrapnel. In fact, most bombs that are designed to kill people are designed to create as much shrapnel as possible. It’s like gluing a thousand guns together pointed in all directions and shooting them all at the same time.
Now, consider your profile as you are being shot at. If you are facing them or turned completely away from them, you are presenting your whole body as a target. If you were to turn side-on, you have a narrower profile and are a smaller target.
Lying down with your feet towards the bomb presents the *smallest* profile. As the shrapnel flies around, the *only* target it can really hit is your feet. That’s not exactly a *pleasant* experience, certainly, but it’s better than getting shrapnel in your chest or eyes or brain. Lying face down also means that *if* the shrapnel is coming from a higher angle for some reason, like an air burst bomb or it ricochets off of something above you, you’re still protecting your soft, fleshy belly and your eyes. Still not ideal to get hit, but the *most* vulnerable parts of you are mostly as protected as they can be.
And if it *isn’t* an air burst bomb, it’s likely that the shrapnel and the shockwave can be reflected by the ground and lose a lot of energy right at ground level. So the shrapnel is marginally less dangerous. It’s not much, but, hey, you’re trying to survive a bomb so take what you can get. Plus, *any* obstructions will slow the shrapnel down or block it, and because gravity is a thing the vast majority of obstructions begin at ground level and end somewhere above it. So dropping down to ground level gives you the best chance of having something between you and the bomb.
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