"Rich" used to fly the IL2 exclusivey, and only against GVs unless some fighter pilot was stupid enough to get in front of me. And you had to be pretty bad even with F3 to get kilt by an IL2. In fact you had to be pathetic. There was only one IL2 jock who used the thing as a fighter, "we all know who", and even with him you had to be either pretty bad, or pretty dumb, to get shot down. The A-20 is faster, climbs better, rolls better, probably turns better, and has a better gun package against fighters then the IL2, but still this "IL2 vs fighters" myth continues. The truth is the GV'ers didnt like getting killed by a tank killer aircraft that actually killed tanks in WW2.
And there were only a few of us tank specialists in IL2s and mobs of Tankers who thought they should get a pass. So thats why a plane with a bomb door/rear gunner is in the FH with no F3, thats why it doesnt hit as hard with its NS-37s "I dont care what anyone says", and thats why its on its way to being a semi-Hangar Queen, "we'll call it a Princess".
Tell me you never used F3 to spot GVs and I'll just laugh at you. BTW Butcher the last 4 tours youv gotten 13 IL2 kills, and I didnt even check what you killed. So I guess your talking about somone else.
The F3 mode was for a reason, I don't see real pilots using F3 mode to spot ground vehicles secondly people were using Il2s for base defense in F3 mode while in attack mode - which is strictly for bombers.
NS-37 is simply not sync'ed - does not mean the killing power was reduced what so ever, a decent IL-2 pilot can score easily 5 GV kills with little skill.