I Want my 4.09 Spit FM's back.........

[Triggaaar]

Originally Posted by WTE_Galway

Actually a number of LW pilots claimed the Spitfire guns were better against fighters than the 109 cannon (due mainly to the poor RoF) and the cannon were really only an advantage when attacking bombers.

That's interesting, thanks. It can't be easy to get the damage model from bullets right, in real life if a pilot could still fly home after being shot, they would. In IL2, we'll keep going unless we're on fire (time to rtb ). Cannons obviously do more damage but bullets were still very effective. Both sides were choosing to use bullets at the end of the war when they could have used cannons exclusively if they'd preferred.

Is there any documentation on why they added cannon to the Spitfire, but kept machine guns too (whether they just thought cannons were better, or if the cannons were primarily for shooting bombers)?