why the mixed guns?

[Yoshimbo]

I was just wondering why my trusty A6M5b has mixed MGs, a fairly good 12.7 and a punk 7.7

Now I looked at the "planes, vehicles, boats" section under 'game info'
and it says that the A6M5b has just one 13mm in nose. wut's up wit dat?

I looked up the specs for the A6M5b and I found info saying that it had varied arments in the cowling one of them including 3x13.2mm MGs!:D

I would very much like to see those 3x13.2mm MGs or at least 2 of them in the next patch. This would make my beloved zero all the more likable.

[HoHun]

Hi Yoshimbo,

>I was just wondering why my trusty A6M5b has mixed MGs, a fairly good 12.7 and a punk 7.7

You can find a bit of information on that in this recent thread:

http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=174736

(Along with more interesting stuff on Japanese aircraft.)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[Tony Williams]

The reason why they started with such armament was that the standard fighter armament for most nations from the end of WW1 until the mid-30s was two rifle-calibre MGs (7.6-7.9mm) in the cowling, synchronised to fire through the prop. The reason for that layout was that guns and ammo weren't very reliable for much of this time, so the guns needed to be within reach of the pilot for unjamming purposes.

When they decided to up the firepower, the IJN (like the Luftwaffe) selected the Oerlikon 20mm cannon. The problem was that, even if there had been space for them in the cowling, the cannon was not suited to synchronisation so had to go in the wings.

They would have kept the cowling guns because the cannon had only a limited ammo supply, whereas the MGs had enough to keep firing for several times longer.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum