Here's the situation: I'm in the forward twin 5" mount of a CV. There is a large PT assault (like a dozen boats in column) coming in on the port bow and the range is only 3-4kyds to the leaders. Thus, I'm shooting across the forward part of the flightdeck at very low elevation. As I'm blasting away and trying to stay on target, I notice peripherally in the bottom of my field of view a number of friendly planes cartwheeling into the sea minus wings and such. At first I think they're getting vulched by nme planes but then I realize no light acks are shooting. Then I think maybe they're crashing on landing, but then I get a good look at one and realize he was taking off. So it gradually dawns on me I might be killing them with my cross-deck fire. Hell, I might even be hitting other planes that are strafing the PTs. But the PTs have to be killed and war is Hell, so I keep firing. Besides, I'm not hearing any pings like I'm taking damage.
But after the repulse of the PTs, it was time to investigate this. I decided to test it out on a squaddie, squaddie-fragging being an old CAF tradition from DOS AW that has been sorely missed the last few years. So I panned around the horizon and there was one of my old DOS squaddies RTBing at 4kyds, heading right at me. Oh perfect
. I fired a single round, the shell burst right next to him, and he immediately tumbled into the sea. And no host message or sounds of damage.
So it appears fleet acks can shoot down friendly planes. The question is, does the firing ship take damage? I sure hope not, because doing so would sure limit the ability of acks to fire in defense of the fleet. I've seen MANY planes dive into storms of friendly ack chasing TBMs and you can't help but hit them sometimes. Plus in situations like my PT attack, guys taking off either will mask the CV's guns or cause it to sink if the guns keep firing.
-Bullethead
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In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria
