WWII Aircraft Anti-Tank Cannon Technical Question

[SDirickson 0]

I read a preview for Il-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles which spoke of the G model Stuka, and it's 37mm flak cannons. The reviewer commented on how actually inadequate the cannons are against Russian armor, since it is, after all, only a 37mm shell against armor even 50mm tank cannons couldn't penetrate.

 

But, I'd have to disagree, and I'd like to know if I am correct. It seems to me that two things would make the Stuka a better anti-tank platform, even with only 37mm cannons. First, shouldn't you be performing your run in's at a dive, which means your cannon shells should be penetrating into the top, or upper sides of the tank? Second, and this is what makes me question the actual potence of the flak cannons, if you are in a Stuka, roaring in at about 300 kph, or greater, doesn't that add a lot to the muzzle velocity of the shell? I know in A2A dogfights, you always get much greater damage out of your guns in a head on pass, because of the closure speeds. Also, in the current Il-2, the Yak-9T (Or, K?) has a 45mm cannon, not much larger than the Stuka's, yet I can consistantly take out a tank with a single shell, even head on, especially head on! And the Stuka has two! Thats 74mm, :D , jk.

 

BTW, it was the B section of the third installment of the www.il2center.com preview.

[SDirickson 0]

Anybody care to just give me their opinion on the matter? I'd like to know which makes more sense, because I've always wondered just how useful aircraft mounted guns are against tanks.

[*Fast Eagle* 0]

You are presicely correct.

The muzzle velocity would definately be greater, and yes the upper and top facing plates aren't as thick as the side and front/rear plating

[Guest Ranger332]

rgr the top is weaker in fact the new at weapones used by USArmy attack just theat area

[SDirickson 0]

The point was that it seems a bit dumb talking about the side armor of a tank, considering an aircraft should always be taking a shot at a downward angle. I pity the pilot who is low enough to shoot upward and hit it, :shock:

 

Ranger, have you seen any footage of those new cluster bomb units, the ones you are talking about? Man, it is wicked. You'd be amazed at the size of the explosion.

 

But, the Army has been doing that for a long time, just a little bit less blatantly, lol. The Hellfire and Javelin missiles both arc upward then dive at their target, and MLRS's have rockets with cluster like submunitions designed to explode on the top of the tank.

 

Oh, kinda on the topic, I saw this show on the History Channel about something relating to the Gulf War. It had a short little blip of a APC firing a rocket over a minefield. The rocket was like one long firehouse, and it was the next generation of a bangalore torpedo. The hose was filled with plastic explosive, and it would detonate in a line of the minefield, clearing a perfect pass. Terrible s**t, dude.

[Guest Ranger332]

was talking about the Javelen I think its called now when the sight is level the tube is pointed at about 20 degrees up

 

its flight path it simuler to a thrown javelen

[*Fast Eagle* 0]

I saw that too, thought it was a very effective device!

 

Now if we only had one that would shoot from the Kuwaiti border all the way to Saddam's palace!!! Launch that f**ker and blow his ass away, and clear the road so we can mop up his "Republican Guard" (what a joke)

 

 

Or maybe we should go take all Saddam's WMD's and let N.Korea use Iraq as a test site for their nuke program. Then while they're nuking Iraq, we go take N.Korea......lol Yeah right, was good for a laugh while I was typing

[Guest Ranger332]

""Republican Guard" (what a joke) "

 

Watched a long tank battle between them and our tank forces,If they had better tanks it would of been a heck of a fight. even when they were losing the dident retreat( they were fighting a delaying action so the others could get away) they D.I.P (died in place) there men wernt a joke they fought well, but our side fought better. This I saw wit my own eyes.

[*Fast Eagle* 0]

""Republican Guard" (what a joke) "

 

Watched a long tank battle between them and our tank forces,If they had better tanks it would of been a heck of a fight. even when they were losing the dident retreat( they were fighting a delaying action so the others could get away) they  D.I.P (died in place) there men wernt a joke they fought well, but our side fought better. This I saw wit my own eyes.

 

Thanks for the enlightenment, I was under the impression that they were a ragtag bunch of soldiers, at least thats what CNN and some buddies in the Army said. But you know how the machisimo goes, most service men think we are invincible, and everyone else is a joke.

I will have to do some more research. If you know any good places to find this info out, let me know. If anyone knows, it would be you

[SDirickson 0]

I hadn't heard any positive opinions of the Republican Guard either.

[Guest Ranger332]

I watched a 2.5 hour tank battle that my team and two others called in the direction of massive dust clouds and we did a "target handoff" to the fast movers/helos/and mainly the tanks was like watching M-1 tank platoon on pc. Till ya rember these are real ppl. not a sim.

 

 

most GI fought the "Home guard" some with as lil as 15 min of training,those gave up as fast as you saw them,they arnt the real army.

our main plus was the way we fight fast and quick. they were use to lines and dug in positions.

 

 

we flanked and could sent whole battalions,and in the case of 101ABN almost a whole Division behind thier lines

 

 

"This photo was taken during the first AirAssault strike into Iraq. At this point we

were 97 miles across the border into Iraq cutting off supply lines and

the Republican Guard retreat." Ranger332

We made Three Assaults 100 miles,67 miles,70 miles we were stopped 90 miles out of Bagdad

[Guest Ranger332]

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/iraq/army/

 

http://carlisle-www.army.mil/

 

Key thing to rember about war History is almost always written by the victor.----and you may quote me. ;)

[SDirickson 0]

Nice pic, Ranger. It really is uncanny how realistic simulations and training are becoming, that you have to remind yourself that it is actual war.

 

BTW, where in Texas do ya live?

<-- Houston.

[snapple2993 0]

The whole stuka thing... simple, Comrade Maddox, always gives the commi planes a bit of an advantage... notice that with a P-39 you can hit a german plane anywhere and it goes down in flames.

 

Christ the most amazing plane in the game is I-16, and it is a total Piece of Sh*t, and yet I can fly around in it, take 300 rounds all over the place, and then crash, and still be alive, but if I get up in 109, or a 190, and I've got nose cannons, and wing pods, I cant knock off a yak to save my ass, even if I hit the son of a bitch with 3 or 4 bursts.

 

I dont know maybe FB will be worth two sh*ts for the germans, now that they got americans running the show, hopefully lomac will be good, but you know what, the only game that I am still enjoying, is IL2, every other game I've bought in the past 6 months has had some serious issues, or they've just been a total let down.

 

Just remember, you could stick an 88 on that stuka and unless you catch that yak on the ground, or hit that tank right in the ass, you aint gonna kill sh*t, because Oleg has to make his country look good.

 

One last thing... FB is gonna suck bad, when they add the P-51, talk about just giving everything over to one side (the russians), and no I wont be using the sh*tty stang in MP, it will be me in my 109 at 8000 km agl waiting for those sorry as yaks and mustangs to come up to me.

 

Oh great pic Ranger... remember republican gaurd is using T-72's and 75's... right? You cant be effective using old sh*t against state of the art sh*t... mother of all battles... please... mother of all ass kickings!!! (pearl harbor is the king of all as kickings though )

[SDirickson 0]

I dunno about Maddox being unrealistic. Frankly, I think that historically the Russians had better performing aircraft, but poorly trained pilots. The Germans had excellent pilots which more than made up for the slight gap between aircraft performance. But Snapple, if you get tired of the huge number of people devoted to Russian aircraft, host your own maps with historical period aircraft, or 100% Luftwaffe aircraft. Besides, the Bf-109K and the Fw-190D should close the gap a lot. I've never had trouble getting good kills with any Luftwaffe aircraft with the Mk.108 cannon installed. Its pretty wicked.

 

And I wasn't complaining about Il-2 or FB's realism, just the reviewer's opinion.