So these are just a few questions after seeing a couple guncam clips from WWII and I note three things:
1.) the amount of tracers coming out of their guns seem to be about 1/2 of the amount of tracers that come out of our guns (ex. the pony or f4u) - perhaps it's just me though
Not sure, but I'm guessing that the actual footage that gave you this impression is/was being shown in slow[er] motion. Not the typical slow motion. It's done a lot to those clips, the high deflection shots would likely be a blink of the eye in real time.
Also, many times those clips are mislabeled on youtube and even in some professional films, you might be looking at cannon rounds being fired instead of 50s.
2.) Most of the tracers I see in these clips (a few of the clips were in color) are actually red rather than our yellow tracers
I believe red tracers are used most of the time by most nations. No evidence to back that up, but red has less effect on night vision.
3.) why do our tracers have those white streaks behind them? I always disliked the white streak (I assume it's supposed to be a smoke trail from the bullets?) I don't really see anything close to that in the clips.
Most of the footage I've seen have smoke trails. I've always thought that some of this could have been vapor trails. Otherwise, there should be no smoke unless there is a tracer.
I recall reading some WW2 air combat stuff, where the pilot asked the ground personnel to load the belts with every fifth with tracers. That leads me to believe the pilot could affect the density of tracer rounds - or even leave them away if he felt like a really good shot.
About the colours: IMO WW2 colour films weren't too accurate in colour reproduction and the bygone 70 years certainly have had an affect to the originals even before they started to transfer them to first magnetic, then digital formats. Add to that, that there was and still is several types of films which act differently by their very nature. Some are vivid, some flat, some tend to overexpose certain hues to warm or cold/red or blue. Heck, even my monitor has a bunch of presets like "photo", "movie", "standard" etc. With all these variations you really can't tell the real colour until you've seen the real stuff. Even then your senses may lie, making you believe an enhanced picture is the most life-like.
I was thinking the same about the color. From what I've read every fifth round was standard, pilots made other requests like loading tracers at the end of the belts and nowhere else to warn that ammunition was about to run out...there were no "ammunition counters" in the cockpit.
But pilot preference could also explain the difference Redbull is noticing if the pilot in the clips had non standard tracer counts and placement. Tracers are not as effective as bullets.
