JoshK Posted January 21, 2000 Share Posted January 21, 2000 The top U.S. ace of the war, Major Richard Bong (Medal of Honor), shot down 40 Japanese aircraft with a P-38. For all the Germanphiles, yes I know this was not against Goering's bunch. However, the majority of Bong's kills were early in the war against highly skilled pilots flying Zeros and Oscars, which were world-class aircraft at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Tom Posted January 21, 2000 Share Posted January 21, 2000 Actually the Zero was a good plane, but, it had its major faults. It was too light, could not take a pounding if you were unluckilly to be caught by the heavy gunned allies. The Japanese also didn't put too much Ammo in their aircraft. The Zero had 20mm cannon, but, they could not use it too much in fear of running out of ammo. The Hurricane and P-40 were probably the equal of the Zero, if they were all flown by the same experienced pilot. The problem was, that Japan has been at war since 1937, and had scores of veteran pilots in the Pacific in 1941. The British who were fighting since 39 didn't see the far east as a high priority. Sub standard planes and pilots were all that England could spare. The Americans were caught off guard in the Philippines losing a vast majority of their fighters on the ground. The Dutch East Indies air force was just in the middle of modernizing, recieving Buffalos and Hurricanes and didn't have enough time. The Main allied problem was that they didn't know how to fight the Zero, and other manuverable Japanese fighters. If you tried to fight them on their level you would be out-manuvered and shot down. However, if the Allies used hit and run tactics (their planes were heavier and faster) they can usually shoot down a plane on one run and get out of there before they can react. The Zero was a fearsome aircraft in the hands of experienced flyers. And Japan had many of them until 1942. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zigster Posted January 21, 2000 Share Posted January 21, 2000 The hell with its record. The P38 looks very, very COOL Twin boom, nose chock full o' fifties. Ooooh, I wants one The only complaints I ever heard about it were its maneuverability, a fault easily cured by judicious use of zoom and boom tactics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted February 9, 2000 Share Posted February 9, 2000 As far as ground attack goes, it's hard to beat a P-38 or P-47. Devastating firepower and both are hard to bring down. That's why I was hoping that armor and toughness of aircraft design would be taken into account in AA fire calculations against fighter-bombers in CM. Some planes should just be much harder to damage or shoot down than others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teutonic Posted February 9, 2000 Share Posted February 9, 2000 Well here goes AFV stands for : Oh nooo going offff toppiccccc A26 Havoc - Night fighter 8 .303 Brownings in nose - Intruder 4 .303 Brownings in nose 1 .303 in dorsal cockpit and upto 1000 lbs of bombs as needed Douglas A26 bomber/night fighter/attack 6 12.7 mm machine guns in the nose with 4 more in two remote operated turrets one on the back and one on the belly. Additionally 10 more machine guns could be added 8 on the wings in 4 containers and two externally mounted on the fuselage. Hawker Hurricane IID Tank buster 2 40mm Vickers 'S' gun mounted under wings 2 7.7 mm mg for sighting Hawker Typhoon - fighter/Ground attack 12 .303 4 20mm cannon 2 1000 lb bombs or 8 3 in. rockets Hawker Tempest - fighter/ground attack 4 20mm cannon and up to 2000 lb bombs Henschel 129 B-1/R-2 ground attack 2 20mm cannons 1 30mm cannon 2 mg 17 machine guns Henschel 129 B-2/R-3 ground attack 1 37mm cannon 2 20mm cannon Henschel 129 B-3/Wa Ground attack 1 75mm cannon and 2 7.9mm Junkers Ju87 G-1 Ground attack 2 37 mm cannon wing mounted Republic p-47d Fighter/Ground attack 6-8 .50 cal machined guns and 6 rockets Bell P39 Fighter/ground attack 1 37mm cannon and 4 7.62mm machine guns North American B-25H Ground attack 1 75mm cannon and 14 machine guns Ilyushin Il-2m3 Ground attack 2 23mm cannon 2 7.62mm machine guns and 8 rockets Sorry don't have much info in the way of Japanese aircraft. Just my two cents worth. Teutonic Jr. Ps. Back on topic Armoured Fighting Vehicle [This message has been edited by Teutonic (edited 02-09-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted February 10, 2000 Share Posted February 10, 2000 Thanks for the cool stats, Teutonic. Could the Typhoon carry all those guns and bombs/rockets at the same time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurtz Posted February 10, 2000 Share Posted February 10, 2000 Jabo is short for JagdBomber. Jagd = hunt. Jäger = hunter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teutonic Posted February 10, 2000 Share Posted February 10, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lee: Thanks for the cool stats, Teutonic. Could the Typhoon carry all those guns and bombs/rockets at the same time?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> OOPss mistated the source on the typhoon 12mgs Mk Ia, 4 20mm cannon Mk Ib and then either the bombs or the rockets with the previous weapons. Teutonic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted February 10, 2000 Share Posted February 10, 2000 Yeah, you had it right the first time, that's why I put the / between bombs and rockets, I knew it wasn't both. But I was just wondering where in the world all those machine guns and cannon are mounted with bombs or rockets on the plane as well. Good grief, that's a *lot* of ordnance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted February 12, 2000 Share Posted February 12, 2000 So Teutonic, where exactly are all those guns mounted at? I'd like to know, it's an amazing load of weapons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
von Lucke Posted February 12, 2000 Share Posted February 12, 2000 In the wings, where else? Actually, the 12x .303's set-up had first been tried in the Hurricane IIb before being carried over into the "Tiffie". Oh, yeah, AFV: Aircraft Flying Vertically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kettle Black Posted February 12, 2000 Share Posted February 12, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lee: So Teutonic, where exactly are all those guns mounted at? I'd like to know, it's an amazing load of weapons. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> The wing construction of the Me109 series where really too thin to pack the same kind of ordnance as the Tempest and the Thunderbolt. The Typhoon could not carry much ammo so it wasn't as effective as the Tempest (plus it had some other design faults). 4x20 mm cannons (Tempest) 8x.50cal mg's (Thunderbolt) That is a huge ability to spread hate... Both could dive faster than falling bricks and could take a lot of punishment, hence could use their speed to survive flak-heavy spots. The Spits wings could not handle the stress of such high speeds. The P-38 design made the airframe "wobble" in a high-speed dive. A good fighter, not a good Jabo. The Focke-Wulfe A8 could load 12 panzerschrecks slung under their wings and I think had 2x30mm cannons + 2x20 mm cannons. Also a very nice hate-spreader. The schrecks could be used for firing into B-17 formations. Anyone interested in what it was like to fly jabo missions in CM's timeframe must read "Le Grand Cirque" (unsure of english title, possibly The Great Madness or something) by Pierre Clostermann. Possibly the best first-hand account written by a fighter pilot. He flew Tempests mainly. In the same class as Das Boot imo. Search for the author to find it online. ------------------ Kettle Black "The End? With practically everyone still on their feet? Over my dead body!" The Player, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted February 12, 2000 Share Posted February 12, 2000 Ok, I get it now. The way Teutonic originally described the Typhoon I thought he meant 12 .303's, 4 20mm's and a load of either bombs or rockets. Haha. That's why I asked where in the world all those guns were mounted. It sounded hardly possible. Now I see there were two different variations with different gun load-outs. So, 6 .303's in each wing? They must have had to really jam em in there. Not much room for ammo either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted February 13, 2000 Share Posted February 13, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Zigster: The hell with its record. The P38 looks very, very COOL Twin boom, nose chock full o' fifties. Ooooh, I wants one The only complaints I ever heard about it were its maneuverability, a fault easily cured by judicious use of zoom and boom tactics.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I saw a P-38 flyby at the air museum in Palm Springs... very disappointed as those twin allisons just purred by very quietly (approx 75yds). I don't know what I expected, but the damn thing was not nearly as loud as television would have you believe. OTOH, a Navy Trojan had just landed, and that twin radial would deafen you from 50yds just taxiing (taxying, tackseying??). Craig ps. the '38 was just a lovely thing to watch in flight though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Captain Foobar Posted February 13, 2000 Share Posted February 13, 2000 They have a fully functional P-38 at an Air Museum in Perris, CA . (near Riverside) If you want to see a close-up of one, it's a real treat. I went with my grandfather, who was a p-38 pilot (R5 photo recon variant I think) But its not too far from Palm Springs. (insert obligatory OT apology here) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
von Lucke Posted February 13, 2000 Share Posted February 13, 2000 Some years ago I made a trip to Reno, Nevada for the annual Air Races: I remember watching in awe as two P-38's, a Bearcat, several P-51's, a Hawker Sea Fury, and of all things, some maniac had a DC-6 up there. Now that's something to see: All those WW2 prop fighters whipping along 1000 ft over the desert floor... And, as I recall, one of the P-51's had his engine sieze up, and ended up making a belly-landing umongst the cactus... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babra Posted February 13, 2000 Share Posted February 13, 2000 If ya wanna push the db pain-o-meter to the limit, have a listen to a Mosquito (The Rolls Royce Merlin variety). I read an article about a fella in Oz who cut the two end cylinders off one and made hisself a motorbike... the mad, mad fool ------------------ Floreat Jerboa ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preacher Posted February 13, 2000 Share Posted February 13, 2000 Funny story about this... Was driving down I-20 (through Atlanta). After passing through town I saw a sign on the inner median that said 'AFV lane.' Being an avid wargamer, particularly ASL, I slowed down so as to be able to catch a glimpse of some sure-to-be-seen tanks in the far left lane. Much to my chagrin, however, my brother (who does not know what AFV REALLY means ) informed me that AFV stood for 'Alternate Fuel Vehicle.' Harumph. Oh well.... Preacher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurker Posted February 13, 2000 Share Posted February 13, 2000 AFV = Artificial Flatulation Valves -Lurker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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