Tank Busting Armaments... Whats The Best Setup???

[Lightning Guy]

Maybe they weren't ideal, but they did foreshadow the weapons that were to come. And being design specifically to attack a tank's upper surfaces was an advanced idea.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

there's very few medium tanks that twin vikers s guns couldn't rip apart..........

[Lightning Guy]

I'm not saying heavy cannons were ineffective (I think they were the best option available in the war) but the PTABs were more of a point towards the future.

[MP-Willow]

A point to the future LG, that was a lot of systems from WWII that did that

I will agree, guns seem to be the way to go.

[lesofprimus]

I would think that more Allied tanks were destroyed by the Ju 87-G2 than any other Axis plane......

I would also think that more German tanks were destroyed by the Il-2M3 than any other Allied aircraft.....

Both utilized a 37mm cannon for the job.....

[the lancaster kicks ass]

very good point, mind you, so did the P-39................

[CharlesBronson]

The arrangement for the 75mm gun in Hs-129B-3 "waffentrager" ( gun-carrier) showing the 12 shot magazine

The long and slim case was the same of the PAK 40. Was able to penetrate 116 mm of good steel a 500m in a 30 degres angle.



I read in many places that the 30mm Mk-103 round ( 30x184B) was inefective against any allied medium tank, but I ´m not very sure about it.

Acording to the "Handbüch fur Flugzebau bordwaffenmunition" year 1977 this round, the Harthkermunition , meaning hard core round, but mostly now as the Panzergranate 40 could pierce a 90 mm plate in a 30 degrees angle a 150 metres, wich is enough to defeat a T-34-76 or the earlys Shermans.

[Erich]

suggest a copy of the OOP title Hs 129 by Martin Pegg. The Mk 103 round was indeed sufficient to take out any Soviet tank.

tottles for now

[lesofprimus]

Unfortunatly (or fortunatly), not very many aircraft could carry the Mk103 on the wing......

The only one i know off the top of my head was the Fw 190A8/R3 and the Fw 190F3/R3, both of which carried them in under-wing gondolas....

[the lancaster kicks ass]

nice shots of the 75mm............

[CharlesBronson]

Two of posible configurations on the Uhu for ground attack.

Four Mg-17 with 1000 rounds of ammo each, complemented by 4 underwing SC-50 in the antipersonel role, or a ventral pack with the Mk-101 gun provided with 30 shot drum magazine.

[Erich]

Les the Mk 103 was never operational with Fw 190 ground attack units. tests were made but unsuitable. the Two 2cm were kept using AP and different forms of Panzerblitz rockets were used

E

[cheddar cheese]

Originally Posted by the lancaster kicks ass

very good point, mind you, so did the P-39................

Was the Airacobra used for ground attack then?

[CharlesBronson]

One of the more persistent myths of World War Two aviation concerns the Russian use of the P-39 Airacobra as a "tank buster," a myth perpetuated until recently . Thanks to James Gebhardt, translator of Attack of the Airacobras: Soviet Aces, American P-39s, and the Air War Against Germany, the actual use of the Bell P-39 by the Soviets can be summarized here.

In short, the Russian pilots flew the Airacobra as "air superiority fighters," and at the low to medium altitudes of air combat on the Eastern Front, they did so with considerable success, against German Fw 190s and Bf 109s. The 216th Fighter Division (later 9th Guards Fighter Division) flew Airacobras from August, 1942 to the end of the war in May, 1945 and counted 28 aces with at least 15 victories.

Anyway the 37mm main gun of the Airacobra was not very efective against armour, his original objetive was to deliver large calibre high explosive shells tracer to ensure the destruction of a formation of bombers that could threat U.S mainland.

Even shooting armour-piercing round the performance was insuficient to penetrate anything more armoured that a Pz I, Pz II ,Sdkfz 251 etc.
Aprox. 20mm of steel plate at 400 metres. Remember that it have a relative short case ( 37x145 rimmed) wich gives a initial speed of 600 m/s.

With no doubt the best gun setup of the entire family of Bell fighters was carried by the P-63D. A elegant bubble-canopy supercharged fighter.
It replaced the old M4 with the M9 wich shot the 37x223SR long bottlenecked case wich improved enormously the penetration on armour.
It was the same cartrigde of the 37mm infantry antitank gun.

Unfortunatly this aircraft not entered in production, his 4x ,50 Browning + 1x37 mm give him a masive firepower that the russians would used with devastating effect againts the new generation of german tanks.

[CharlesBronson]

A picture of the fine Bell P-63D.



"One of a kind"