A moment or so after its explosion began it was still mainly
an inert sphere exploding superficially, a big, inanimate nucleus
wrapped in flame and thunder. Those that were thrown from aeroplanes
fell in this state, they reached the ground still mainly solid, and,
melting soil and rock in their progress, bored into the earth. There, as
more and more of the Carolinum became active, the bomb spread itself out
into a monstrous cavern of fiery energy at the base of what became very
speedily a miniature active volcano. The Carolinum, unable to disperse,
freely drove into and mixed up with a boiling confusion of molten
soil and superheated steam, and so remained spinning furiously and
maintaining an eruption that lasted for years or months or weeks
according to the size of the bomb employed and the chances of its
dispersal. Once launched, the bomb was absolutely unapproachable and
uncontrollable until its forces were nearly exhausted, and from the
crater that burst open above it, puffs of heavy incandescent vapour and
fragments of viciously punitive rock and mud, saturated with Carolinum,
and each a centre of scorching and blistering energy, were flung high
and far.
Such was the crowning triumph of military science, the ultimate
explosive that was to give the 'decisive touch' to war.
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