Gun convergence on Bf 109

[zapatista]

U505

the most important issue with wing-gun convergence is knowing exactly how far the enemy plane is from you, and obviously knowing what convergence distance your wing guns are set at, typically somewhere between 100 and 300 meters, with most preferring somewhere between 150-200 meters. if your convergence is set past 300 meters, much of the munitions energy is lost over the distance, and hit impact will be less (historically correct principle, and i think this energy loss is modeled in il2/CoD series). one reason the polish squadron was so effective in BoB, other then most of them being very highly trained pilots, is that they set their convergence very short at 125 or 150 meters, and would maneuver quickly very close to the enemy plane and then take their shot (making their munitions more hard hitting, and more accurate). a convergence setting is obviously not needed for nose canons, but i believe you could set elevation for some of these nose cannons on certain aircraft. similarly you can set an elevation convergence setting for wing guns, but that is mostly relevant for distances past 300 meters iirc

to learn to recognize how far exactly the enemy plane is from you, read some articles and pilot instruction manuals about using the gun-sight reticule to determine plane distances. typically you set it to the known fighter size of your opponent at a given distance (eg his wing tip will fully fit in the reticule at for ex 200 meters), and then you know by looking if the enemy plane is smaller he is further away, and if larger, he is closer by. then you know that if he is exactly at the right distance from you, all your munitions will hit one small area, if he is closer they will hit on either side etc..

also, look up dome information of deflection shooting, since rarely will you ever have the luxery of sitting right behind an enemy plane at a fixed distance from you and shoot squarely at him for any length of time. with deflection shooting you have to hit him from the right distance AND with the right amount of "leading" (shooting in front of him) so he flies into your gunnery trail

lastly, with the right distance and the right convergence setting, and with the right deflection shooting skill, you still need to aim at some specific vulnerable parts of the aircraft to be effective, eg the cockpit with the pilots, the engines themselves, or the wing roots. often just vaguely shooting into the fuselage itself can be very ineffective, since you dont his any vital parts. there is specific info for various aircraft as to what their specific weak points are, eg for the old il2 sturmovik aircraft for the engine you had to try and hit the oil cooler from underneath the plane, because the engine had armor protecting it from other angles etc

thats the main principles, you might need to do some reading on the subjects to get a more comprehensive idea. eg for attacking bomber formations, read up on the historical tactics used by attacking planes to minimize risk to themselves and make it more effective, the same tactics can be used in CoD/il2 series