I was shot down by ROCKETS!!!

[major347]

Ok, can someone tell me how he did the perfect aim.

I was flying a formation of b26s when a bf110 chased me down. When came to about 1.5k out he pulled up slightly, fired about four Rockets and shot all three of my planes down in one shot. Wow!

How did he get all three in one shot?

[Lusche]

Because the WGR 21 the 110 is firing are actually anti air rockets with a huge (90lb!) warhead. They have timed fuse's, so with a great deal of luck or a lot of practice they will explode right amidst your formation. The effect is the same as being hit by an artillery piece.


For comparison: a 5" shell (our puffy ack) has an explosive filling of about 7.2lbs. A single WGr 21 has 63lbs of HE.

[Wreked]

lol - LUCK!!

Rockets were known to be incredibly inconsistant to aim properly. They were "dumb" - no guidance system in those days . They were intended to be fired enmasse in the hopes that 1 or 2 would find a mark - because of their high HE capability it usually only took one to connect for a kill.

While Axis WWII research had been initiated  in the area of air-to-air proximity fusing - it never reached an operational level..

....cheers eh!

[Steve]

lol - LUCK!!

Tell that to Filth. He regularly gets kills in a 110 with rockets.

[Wreked]

Tell that to Filth. He regularly gets kills in a 110 with rockets.

I'll be lookin fer him for some pointers - nothing quite as satifying as a rocket kill!!

cheers eh!

[Anodizer]

Ripple firing them for a 38L (5 inchers) works pretty well..
I know they're not really air to air like the Kraut rockets, but they explode on contact which is certain cartoon decimation for any aircraft they hit...

Haven't tried them on the J (the 4 inchers), but I'm sure they'd do the same devastation....

[onan]

Have done the same and shot the whole rack of rockets from my D-40 at 3 B17's and got all of them.
Was pure luck I think but made me very happy.

Never happend since

[Spikes]

Because the WGR 21 the 110 is firing are actually anti air rockets with a huge (90lb!) warhead. They have timed fuse's, so with a great deal of luck or a lot of practice they will explode right amidst your formation. The effect is the same as being hit by an artillery piece.


For comparison: a 5" shell (our puffy ack) has an explosive filling of about 7.2lbs. A single WGr 21 has 63lbs of HE.

How mych of a time is there? Thought it was proximity.

[CountD90]

How mych of a time is there? Thought it was proximity.

How ever many seconds it take for the rockets to travel about 1-1.5k. I would do the math if I knew how fast they their launch speed is.

[Ghosth]

There are gunsights out there that can help, but there is still a pretty good luck factor involved.

Rates right up there with hitting a ship with torpedo's as far as difficulty.

[moot]

The quickest way to practice is probably against the .target, offline.  This will simulate a target flying at the same speed as you.  Once you can reliably predict and aim the rockets against that, you're all set to find a formation and set yourself up behind them at zero relative speed, and simply fire away just like with the .target.
An even more effective setup could be to find the right distance from a head-on approach (it'll be much further and you'll have to keep your approach speed the same while testing different firing ranges) and then making a pass shortly after that.  It could make for a single pass kill on the whole formation.. Especially with a 110G's 4 WGr21s and nose guns.

[Ack-Ack]

Ripple firing them for a 38L (5 inchers) works pretty well..
I know they're not really air to air like the Kraut rockets, but they explode on contact which is certain cartoon decimation for any aircraft they hit...

Haven't tried them on the J (the 4 inchers), but I'm sure they'd do the same devastation....

Waste of time on the J, those are basically bazooka rounds.

ack-ack

[Spikes]

How ever many seconds it take for the rockets to travel about 1-1.5k. I would do the math if I knew how fast they their launch speed is.

Ah. Yeah Larry told me they explode @ about 1.5K

[captain1ma]

I'll be lookin fer him for some pointers - nothing quite as satifying as a rocket kill!!

cheers eh!

if you want to learn rockets, see larry or most anyone in JG54, we have that down to a science!  larry consistantly kills b17's, 24, or lancs with those things, if he can catch them.

[morfiend]

The Wgr 21 rockets travel roughly 320 m/sec,the fuse was adjustable and could be set for between 600 and 1200 meters.

 Which comes close to 1.5k yards bependant on closure rate!

 If my math doesnt fail me I'd say the fuze was 2 seconds to 4 seconds,preset before flight.