Question on the P38G loadout......

[Hazard69]

Didnt early P38 versions have 8 nose mounted 50cals? Or is it that P38G isnt early enough?
Also were any P38s ever reverted to that 8X50cals loadout?

JUst curious... .....

[Krusty]

A few rare birds had experimental 6-packs in the nose (no 20mm). Some had gunpods under the wings, I think 2x under each wing and some other places, for a total of 12x, but again, rare, experimental, in-field customizations.

[Soulyss]

Armament was standardized @ 4 x .50 cal plus 1 20mm in the nose by the time the G rolled down the assembly lines.. I do however think (don't have books in front of me) that the G did sport a different version/model of 20mm than the earlier models.

[Hoarach]

Krusty I believe the 6x50 38 was a field mod and werent that uncommon.  The 12x50s 38 was the 38L super strafer.  The 38 super strafer had 8x50s in the nose and had the ability to carry 2 wingpods each having 2x50s adding the total to 12x50s.  This 38 also had a lot of ammo more than the jug I believe.  However, I believe only 1500 were produced.

Wait until Dan sees this thread he will correct me if I said anything wrong.

[Delirium]

The 6 .50cal P38 was a 80th Headhunter field modification... from the accounts, it was alot more lethal than the 20mm cannon version.

I've seen pics of the bird in question, but I have yet to see pics of how the guns were set up in the nose.

[Guppy35]

The picture of the 80th Headhunter 6 50 P38.

Flown by 80th Ace Ken Ladd, the 6 gun set up was apperently devestating but they dropped it after a short time.  This was in the first half of 1944 and was a P38J I believe.

There was one P38L modified postwar as a super strafer as Hoarch describes.  Nothing came of that one either.  The 6 gun mod was not common in practice.

[68Hawk]

I havn't seen anything before suggesting different standardized armament in the 38 from the package we have in the game,  but I'm not surprised at all that mods were made in the field, or that other gun packages were tested.  Thats a good pic Guppy, thanks.  

While more than 4 .50s could obviously be packed into the nose, adding a second cannon would be a different story, due to space and balance considerations.  The Ammo and loading mechanisms have to fit in there, and if you load up the nose too much, you end up with an unbalanced plane that is more dangerous to the pilot.  Flight manuals from the time warn against flying without ballast if the guns are removed, for example.  What would the performance of the superstrafer version have been?  Probably not as good, but I'd wager it would still haul bellybutton pretty well.

One possible shortcoming of the games depiction of these weapons is rate of fire.  I've found advice articles written during the war that warn pilots against long bursts with their .50s.  These claim that due to some kind of hop up kit that dramatically increased the rate of fire the barrels would soon be burned out with extended firing or overly repeated bursts.  This could be why the 38 seems to suffer slightly in our game vs historical accounts.  Still, the 4 .50s will reach out there really far for pecking and harrassing, have a good shotgun patter up close, and personnaly I wouldn't trade the 20mm for another two of them.  Save the 20mm for up close and use all that ammo in the .50s for hearding and splattering.  

Someone please let me know if you find info on how many RPG would have been carried with the 6 .50 version.  I personally will trade two for more fire time, but I'm interested to know how the space tradeoff affected loadout.

[Murdr]

Again here is the 2 cannon prototype tested in connection with the xp-49 program.  Other test versions included 8x.50 cals in the nose, and also one with 3 long barrel .60 cals in the nose.