Titanium Ju88, or 37mm Field Gun porkage?

[Wilbus]

Yeah they get blown out of the sky by 12 50 cal but 12 30mm keeps em flying.

[Fishu]

two 37mm hits? in different locations in ju88?
Thats not any impossibility

One 37mm is unlikely to rip ju88's wing.
I've seen such caliber hits on wings and stabilizers, not that powerful.

[beet1e]

Wot, no-one want to see my film?

[4343]

i think wulfie's right.  the fact is that sometimes it's just bad luck.  

37mm is a lot of gun and most planes do go down with just a couple hits, but consider the locations of the hits and the corrections the pilot could take.  you take out an engine and hit a wing (im assuming the outer section) and you're looking at the pilot adding opposite rudder and nursing the  airplane to what probably ended up as an unsuccessful ditch.  bombers are tough airplanes, and the c47 is a bad comparison because it's converted from civil...i put one down with 6 20mm cannon shells out of an LA7 once because i snagged him in the wing root, they're flimsy.  and what's the big deal about it anyway? wasn't your objective to make him break off?  you even got credit for the kill!

be happy, from the looks of this forum it doesn't seem like it happens very often.  wulfie's right, it "could" have survived, and it did.

[majic]

Just rememeber it happens.  I put 4 or 5 in a Lancaster last night and it didn't go down and I didn't expect it to either, they were scattered and several were into the belly.  I know I damaged it, but the hits were not concentrated enough to do fatal damage.

[BenDover]

how about this?

put a 75mm AP (still should be enough thou?) round from a panzer into a b17s wing root, kept on flying

[wulfie]

A 75L48 AP round would have a good chance of passing clean thru, barring a hit vs. the main spar. In this case you would have a 7.5cm hole clean thru the wing. If this hole didn't go thru anything important...

Mike/wulfie

[majic]

What's that?

Those are speed holes, makes the car go faster.

[Tumor]

I've been flying bombers quite a bit over the last couple of campaigns.  I've taken much more than 2 37mm hits and survived to land.

Just saying, doesn't seem to be an issue IMO.

[Duedel]

Originally posted by majic
What's that?

Those are speed holes, makes the car go faster.

Hi Homer

[Glasses]

Wulfie if I'm not mistaken the AP rounds from the Pz IV gun have an HE filing so on impact they would explode and cause no the same damage as an HE round but enough to cause the wing to fail.

[senna]

What about all that kenetic energy. I can see the round hitting something like a wingtip and passing through but not hitting the hard and rigid wing root without causing major structural falure.

[wulfie]

glasses there were some types of AP that had an explosive charge. Others were solid shot.

But even those with a charge - it wouldn't matter much to a B-17.

Those types of AP rounds were fused to blow up inside an AFV after penetrating its armor.

Unless it hit a major spar, or an engine, the aluminum of a B-17s wing may not even trigger the fuse properly.

If it did, odds are the charge is going to blow after it's passed completely thru the wing.

I've interviewed German AFV gunners who fought in WW2 - against halftracks they often used HE rounds. AP rounds would overpenetrate - making 2 big holes but not destroying the vehicle outright. A 75L48 HE round vs. an M3 halftrack would almost always wreck the halftrack and cause heavy casualties to any nearby personnel.

The overall point is this - it's what you damage and how you damage it, not what you hit with. 3cm high gas pressure HEI rounds (fired by the MK 108) literally tore B-17s apart. They tore apart the skin that helped hold the entire aircraft together as well as breaking anything they blew up near.

Mike/wulfie

[BenDover]

i don't know if AH models angle of bullet attack on planes, but the range was about 1.1k, and i'm sure it should smash the front then create a hole bigger than 7.5cm cos its going thru at an angle

also, isn't there a fuel tank near the bomb bay on a b17 somewhere?


also, the happy bit:

i finnished him off with my top mg34

the hits were spread, but the noise annoyed him so much he stalled and spun out

[Glasses]

Well my point was considering that there is supposed to be fuel   in the wingroot of the B17 , because if I'm correct that's where the fuel tanks are, it should at least caused it to leak fuel but it didn't and mind you B17s are very tough skinned I had the pleasure of seeing one up close and the wing root IMO would be thick enough to cause a bullet to detonate although it all depends on how the bullet was designed like wulfie mentioned.