Arguing with a guy about Rudel.

[YankeeDog]

Bear in mind that the attack profiles the Ju-87G is capable of while carrying the 37mm cannons are not particularly steep, so it can't achieve very "flat" hits against the top armor of an AFV except in special circumstances such as when the AFV is on a steep incline.

 

When carrying the 37mm gun pods, the Ju-87G is actually not a dive bomber -- to improve performance and reduce weight, the dive brakes were removed when the 37mm gun pods were carried, and the weight of the gun pods also dramatically reduced the ability of the aircraft to pull out of a steep dive quickly -- each gun pod weighed nearly 300kg and unlike a Stuka on dive bomb run, and the Ju-87G had to drag this weight all the way through the pullout rather than jettisoning it just before the nadir.

 

So the typical Ju-87G attack profile was actually a shallow dive.  Penetrations of e.g., the T-34 16mm deck armor might still be statistically possible, but at these aspects the side and/or rear plates (assuming a flank or rear approach to the target) would make up a much larger percentage of the target cross-section and therefore hits to these plates and/or the tracks and running gear would be much more common than top hits.

 

However, at least if the pilot pressed this type of attack to close range, 37mm APCR from a Flak 18 probably could penetrate T-34 side or rear armor -- bear in mind that much of the effectiveness of the T-34's side armor especially comes from slope, and plunging fire from a 30-45 degree angle will negate much of this slope.

 

It's still not a matchup that's particularly favorable for the shooter.  In addition to being *really* hard to hit a small target like a T-34 with gunfire when moving at 300+ kph (and only getting a few seconds on target, and therefore only a few shots per run), the behind armor effect of 37mm APCR is not good.  So a significant proporation of the penetrations achieved are going to cause only minor damage.

Edited December 18, 2014 by YankeeDog