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Because of the forward speed of the plane, bombs travel forward as well as down when they are released from the racks, head for the ground in a sweeping curve. Bombs from a ship flying at 200 miles an hour at 10,000 feet travel roughly 13-miles in horizontal distance before they get to the target. If a ship continues in its same flight line (as it does if it has an objective just beyond), it will be almost directly over the first target when the bomb hits. But more popular with bombing crews is a single objective. Then a pilot can turn and climb after the bombs are released, scramble out of fire from batteries below, and make himself a hard target by varying course and altitude.