tank main gun shooting planes down.

[lerxst]

Is there suppose to be some or any kind of realism to this game? as the subject title describes,has there ever been any time in combat that a m4 or any other tank kills a plane be it low alt? this is the kind of thing with this game that frustrates me.plane wasnt flying right at him but in a turn.IS THIS REALLY EVER HAPPENED, :bheadANYONE??

[Ack-Ack]

Is there suppose to be some or any kind of realism to this game? as the subject title describes,has there ever been any time in combat that a m4 or any other tank kills a plane be it low alt? this is the kind of thing with this game that frustrates me.plane wasnt flying right at him but in a turn.IS THIS REALLY EVER HAPPENED, :bheadANYONE??

don't fly straight at a tank's main gun and you won't get shot down by it.  But to answer your question, yes there have been recorded incidents in which a tank shot down a plane with its main gun.

This is an account from Otto Carious' book (page 43).

On the other hand, we had a lot of trouble with Russian fighters. They 'lurched' past us, almost without a break. That's really the way one has to describe that type of flying. My gunner, Unteroffizier Kramer, can take credit for a deed which was probably unparalleled on the Eastern Front. That is, he succeeded in shooting down a Russian fighter with the tank cannon. Of course, he was also helped by chance. This was how it happened. Kramer, upset by the unrelenting nuisance of these guys, elevated his cannon along the approach route. I talked him in. He took a chance and pulled the trigger. On the seco0nd attempt, he hit one of the 'bees' in its wing. The Russian crashed behind us.

Dmitriy Loza in an interview was asked a Sherman's AA defenses.  Interview source: I Remember - Dmitriy Loza interview

The Sherman had an antiaircraft machine gun Browning M2 .50 caliber. Did you use it often?

- I don't know why, but one shipment of tanks arrived with machine guns, and another without them. We used this machine gun against both aircraft and ground targets. We used it less frequently against air targets because the Germans were not fools. They bombed either from altitude or from a steep dive. The machine gun was good to 400-600 meters in the vertical. The Germans would drop their bombs from say, 800 meters or higher. He dropped his bomb and departed quickly. Try to shoot the bastard down! So yes, we used it, but it was not very effective. We even used our main gun against aircraft. We placed the tank on the upslope of a hill and fired. But our general impression of the machine gun was good. These machine guns were of great use to us in the war with Japan, against kamikazes. We fired them so much that they got red hot and began to cook off. To this day I have a piece of shrapnel in my head from an antiaircraft machine gun.

In his book, Commanding the Red Army's Sherman Tanks: The World War II Memoirs of Hero of the Soviet Union, Loza also briefly mentions a Sherman tank in his unit shooting down a German attack plane.

ack-ack

[DREDIOCK]

Like a few other things in this game we see with regular frequency IRL it happened.. Very very VERY rarely. But it happened

[Mano]

I shoot allot of planes down with a tank. Most of the tankers do. The planes that come in really low are are at risk to being main gunned. I have had several come back 5 or 6 times and STILL come in low. I don't mind shooting them down, because they result in good perk points.  

[Aspen]

It should be stopped, but I don't know how to make pilots stop flying the way they do.  Until we fix pilots flying in such an unrealistic manner that tanks can main gun them, we will have this goofy part of the game.

[ReVo]

The simple solution would be to remove GV's.

[Arlo]

The simple solution would be to remove GV's.

Bout as simple as cutting off a foot to treat a hangnail. 

[ReVo]

Bout as simple as cutting off a foot to treat a hangnail. 

I think the GV foot is gangrenous, the hangnail is just a small side problem.

[grizz441]

I don't see what you are complaining about...a tank fires a turret in three dimensional space.  Your plane flies in this three dimensional space.  If a tank fires a turret and it happens to hit your plane in this three dimensional space you die.  Why is this unrealistic?

[Chalenge]

don't fly straight at a tank's main gun and you won't get shot down by it.  But to answer your question, yes there have been recorded incidents in which a tank shot down a plane with its main gun.

The best way to kill airplanes with a tank is to have your gun pointed away from them precisely 180 degrees.

Aces High does not model air burst from shooting trees, and it does not model the explosive plume from shooting the ground. That does not stop that type of fire from killing planes, though.  

[kvuo75]

thought experiment:

should tank be able to kill plane sitting still on runway? yes?

should tank be able to kill plane rolling at 20mph on runway? yes?

should tank be able to kill plane rolling at 60mph on runway? yes?

should tank be able to kill plane in air at 85mph, 5 feet above runway? yes?

should tank be able to kill plane in air at 100mph, 50 feet above runway? yes?

etc.

etc.

etc.

why anyone thinks planes should be invulnerable to tank fire is beyond me.


ps.

if it's happening to you all the time, you're flying in a very predictable manner.

[lunatic1]

I think the GV foot is gangrenous, the hangnail is just a small side problem.

if you fly low and straight at a tank he can shoot you....same with the plane past a gv, all a gv'er has to do is lead his target and boom

[Arlo]

I think the GV foot is gangrenous, the hangnail is just a small side problem.

There've been GVs in this game longer than you and I. I'm thinkin' Dale wouldn't share your opinion.   

[ReVo]

if you fly low and straight at a tank he can shoot you....same with the plane past a gv, all a gv'er has to do is lead his target and boom

It sure would be nice if tankers didn't get a laser rangefinder and commander view with no commander to strafe.. Would make this a tad bit harder.

[captain1ma]

by that same thought, the wirblewind should be better modelled to hit planes then it is, but that's not the case anymore either.