Originally Posted by
tdracer
Assuming the part about it being nose-up isn't a reporting error - that's very curious. Although dredging may have disturbed it, it would be unlikely to rotate it 180 degrees while leaving the bomb almost entirely covered.
I wonder if the tail fins detached/failed, and the bomb tumbled instead of heading in nose-first. That could also explain why it didn't detonate - landing tail first.
Yep, that's my view as well. Wallis designed the Tallboy fins to spin the bomb on decent, so it would go down vertically, for the penetrative earthquake effect, so a problem with the fins and landing tail fist would indeed account for this.