Damage Models

[Vermillion]

Karnak, ummm.... standard Bf109's have more MG's than Cannons, same with Yaks, and also the P38. Spits, A6Ms, and such have 50/50 in later varients, early varients had more MG's than cannons. About the only one I agree with you on is the Fw190.

Then your totally forgetting the P40, F4F, F6F, F4U, and the P51.

Look at the top ten or fifteen most common aircraft of WWII (by production) then calculate how many MG's were deployed and how many Cannon were deployed.

Its not a myth in the least.

[Urchin]

Yes Vermillion, planes that had cannon also usually had maching guns to.  However, which of those guns are they using to kill the enemy plane with?  I'd wager they are using the cannon, maybe IRL they used the MG's to 'sight' the enemy plane, although since the rounds had different trajectories I honestly don't see how this would work.  

The cannon is considered the "main" armnament, the MG's are there for when the cannon rounds run out.  The U.S.A is the only nation that fielded primarily machinegun-ONLY birds, with no cannon.  For that reason I'd say that Karnak is right, there were many more "cannon" birds than "MG" birds in WW2.

[Karnak]

Vermillion,

I was only listing the cannon armed aircraft.  No fighter that was armed exclusively with machine guns was produced in the numbers of the Bf190, Yak, Spitfire or Fw190. Those are the four most produced fighters of WWII.

When people talk about cannon birds vs machine gun birds they inevitably mean fighters that have cannon vs fighters that have only machine guns.

How many Spitfires or Fw190s do you think relied on their .303s or 7.92mm machine guns for their killing power?  Not bloody many.

If your aircraft is armed with cannon then that is functionally your aircraft's firepower. When my Spit's cannon run dry I am looking for a way out of the fight, not trying to kill people with the four .303s. The only exception that I can think of is the P-38 which obly has one cannon and has four heavy machine guns to back it up.

[Fester']

look what happened to vehicles when their damage model was upgraded.


no thanks leave it as is