Just to add the 1500 ft altitude is optimum for the most effective blast for those type of nukes. A burst lower than that would still be devastating but cause a crater and severely reduce the blast radius. A nuclear explosion at ground level would actually force much of the explosive power upward and be a waste.
Yup. Again, the complex mechanism of a nuclear device isn’t going to work smashing into the ground like an artillery shell or a 500 lb. bomb dropped from a plane or jet. Air burst detonations of artillery shells are devastating against troops in the open, that’s for sure. An uncle of mine was wounded during The Battle of The Bulge in Belgium in early Jan.’45. Way he described it was his unit was assembling for an attack and were waiting in the open(bad move) to meet up with a company of some Sherman tanks. Kraut 88 saw them. Ground was frozen so that wouldn’t have done much damage so they fired an air burst. Damn near took my uncles head off. Said all he remembered was talking to the guy next to him and then waking up in a hospital in England ‘’with half my face torn off’’.