Guns Convergence

[Banjo]

Has anyone got any information as to what distance convergence was used in the actual WW2 combat situations for the various aircraft?  Was the setup left up to the individual pilot and their mechs, army aircorp guides, etc?

How does it track with what guys are using in the sim?

[leonid]

Banjo,
I depends on your own style, but historically most guns were configured to converge from 150m - 400m.  Many aces preferred to set convergence to 100-200m, because they preferred to get in close and not waste rounds.  Also, many American aviators used a different approach: they set their 4-6 .50 mgs to converge at different ranges, thereby creating a 'shotgun type' effect.  Since most US WWII aircraft had more than generous amounts of .50 rounds it made such a configuration useful.

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129 IAP VVS RKKA

[Mr.ED]

I fly P-51 & set my guns like this:
Inner 2 guns at 450, middle 2 guns at 475, and outside guns at 500.
The reason is that traveling the speeds I do,
500 mades dang sure I don't ram the back of the con plane

Also thats where the bullets "converge" at. At 250 they are speading back out just past the original spread from my wings, that close, either a side deflected snap shot, or 6 shot will hit and cause damage.

When dealing with a bullet that flys supersonic & has a 2 mile range, what the heck is another few yards!

Mr.ED
Pony Driver
Knight

[-kier-]

350 yards seems perfect for me. Got 4 buffs in one sortie (after resetting convergence), and had ammo to spare. Started at a high-4 position and swept through the rear plane to his low-10, zoomed up to reposition for the next plane. I opened fire at 1.0 each time (wasted some rounds). BEEE-yoootiful strikes all down the wings every time, and no return fire.

Now that I think about it, that was waaaay too easy for one fighter! You couldn't get me in a buff for anything...  

[Lephturn]

Well if he was silly enough not to shoot at you, it should be that easy!  Maybe he had run out of ammo or was down in the bomb site?


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Lephturn
The Flying Pigs

[-kier-]

I could see one, maybe two, but all four? There was return fire, none of it hit (I should be clearer).

[Lephturn]

Well, if none of it hit either you did a really good job evading fire, or he was a bad gunner.  Either way, I've found that you MUST use a proper front 1/4 pass to have a reasonable chance of killing a buff with no damage.  Try to climb up his low 6 like a dweeb, and you are dogmeat.  I have done the low 6 trick before, but I almost always sacrifice myself in this situation to kill the buff and keep him from my base.



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Lephturn
The Flying Pigs

[-kier-]

Try this:

Climb above a buff, at about a 1,000-1,500 ft advantage. Run parallel with it until you are about his/her 10 or 2 O'clock. Now drift over toward the bomber until about 1.6 away. Dive on them, firing while the bomber is still under your nose. As the bomber returns to view you will see splashes all over the wing and fuselage, and that buff will now be on fire.

By attacking this way you are only in the field of fire of the top gun, but you are going so fast it can't track you. Extend and roll away after the pass, and whatever does manage to hit you will do no harm. You can repeat as often as necessary, but one pass will generally do it.

Watch Wimp in his Nikki; he climbs directly above and drops straight down. It works every time!

[Nath-BDP]

Also,

Try flying about 1k below the 17, then when you are about 70º or 60º infront and below the 17 pull up then try time it it exactly right so that you meet the 17s belly and just unload everything you have, this works best with a 109 with 30mm because of the quick burst power. Also be sure you have enough E to dive back down quick enough to avoid fire if the first pass failed. Also try using the up and front view to watch the 17 closing, works great but dont fire while in this view or you're bullets won't do any damage but rounds will be spent.

[Baal]

At the beginning of WWII the RAF used 400 yards convergence. Once the real fighting began n May 1940, most squads quickly found out that 400 was too far and switched to 300 yards. This remained standard for the rest of the war.

Many RAF aces preferred even shorter convergences though. For instance George Beurling preferred to fire at 250 yards.

RAF squads did not typically assign a specific a/c to a pilot. Rather, all squad a/c were in a pool and assigned on a daily basis. Because of this, 300 was the norm whether that pilot wanted it or not.

B