Question: Bombardment-delay mechanics

[Anton]

I need your help in understanding bombardment mechanics, because my experiments show that it does not work as documented in the game guide:

Shows the dely (sic!) in turns and fractions before the mission will arrive (arrives?). Fractions up to 0.4 do not delay, 0.5 will delay to the next turn, and then deliver half a fire mission (for HE, smoke). Thus an HE mission with 1.5 delay will arrive in the second turn from calling, drop 1/2 the amount of HE, and will then drop the remaining 0.5 load in turn 3 from call.

Perhaps I misunderstand something, but observe my experiment. I have chosen a German Batterie of four 15 cm sFH 18 howtizers with an experience of 86 and a morale of 78. The unit's rate of fire is five.

After I assigned it a mission, the delay was 2.1, so it was silent for two turns. By the end of the second turn, when the delay had become 0.1, I expected it to deliver the entire mission in the next turn, but I saw only twelve shells (3 per howtizer) and the mission was not finished. It was complete in the following turn, delivering sixteen shells, or a total of twenty-eight per mission.

When I assigned a repeat mission at the same location, it had a delay of 0.2 and again took two turns to complete, delivering eight shells in the following turn and sixteen more in the one after it. The following table summarizes the results:

Mission  Delay      I          II      Total
Initial   0.1    12 (4x3)   16 (4x4)    28
Repeat    0.2     8 (4x2)   16 (4x4)    24

They are reliably reproducible in scenario 149 SSVN at Rozan 9/39 with unit H0. Just make sure to move the HQ back out of harm's way and use it as the spotter. If required, I will provide a set of saved games demonstrating this.

My questions:

1. Both missions began with a small delay less than 0.5. Why did they not complete in a single turn, as documented?
2. Why was the repeat mission less efficient than the initial one, delivering 24 shells versus 28 in the initial mission?
3. How do these numbers correlate with the unit's experience and rate of fire?