Does the cannon's ammo explodes when they are hit ?

[EAF51/155_TonyR]

I read somewhere that during the BoB the Luftwaffe pilots, when under attack, were used to fire all the cannon's ammo fearing their explosion.
Is this true ?

[deadmeat313]

There was one old LW pilot they got to have a go of IL-2 Sturmovik. They interviewed him on the old IL2 forum while he was flying a FW-190. When a Spitfire got behind him he started firing his cannons off into nowhere.

The guys asked him what he was doing and he said something along the lines of "No good getting hit with all these bombs inside the wings."

That is the only place where I've read of this taking place.

DM

[Sternjaeger II]

it makes absolute sense though.

You have hundreds of kg of ammo and explosive in your wings, if one goes off, it's the last place you wanna be..

[Continu0]

This is actually already part of the game. Not in Fighters, but watch the AI bombers:
When under Attack, they release their bombs into the sea.

[Verhängnis]

Continu0, I am pretty sure that unless the Bomb's are armed then they are completely harmless, considering most of those small Hurricane shells wouldn't be able to penetrate the aircraft and then through the steel casings and still have enough energy to set the explosives off, although I may be wrong.

[drewpee]

I would think if one round went off the rest would become shrapnel, not exploding unless the detonator hit something sharp and hard. If you had any sort of fire near a ammo magazine you'd be hitting the silk. Actuarial any fire in an aircraft and you'd bail.

[Osprey]

They release bombs because they are hit and can no longer hit their intended target. It makes sense to lighten the load to try and save the aeroplane.

[Hellbender]

Several times these emergency released bombs dropped through my plane and dealt no damage.

[klem]

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger II

it makes absolute sense though.

You have hundreds of kg of ammo and explosive in your wings, if one goes off, it's the last place you wanna be..

OK, so where precisely do I aim?

[MD_Titus]

Originally Posted by deadmeat313

There was one old LW pilot they got to have a go of IL-2 Sturmovik. They interviewed him on the old IL2 forum while he was flying a FW-190. When a Spitfire got behind him he started firing his cannons off into nowhere.

The guys asked him what he was doing and he said something along the lines of "No good getting hit with all these bombs inside the wings."

That is the only place where I've read of this taking place.

DM

considering the gun cam footage of lots of 190's wings snapping off just at the point where a large tin of 20mm would be, i can see the logic. also recall seeing the schematic for the armour around ammo bays for the wingmounted mk108s.