Mitsubishi Stuka and Thunderbolt

[horseback]

I agree that fires in the fuel tanks is the way that I get most of my heavy bomber kills (other than the odd lucky shot to the cockpit with a head-on initial pass). With cannon fire, that doesn't seem too unreasonable. But, with HMG fire, it almost seems like they burn too easily.

Actually, machine gun rounds starting fires is entirely reasonable; ball, much less armor piercing rounds striking aluminum actually melt their way through. Aluminum melts at around 1160° F, and I can say from experience that splashes or spalling of molten aluminum can start anything reasonably flammable to light up; hydraulic fluid, oil, aviation grade petrol, or thirty plus years ago, my co-worker’s denim jeans (and thank God he had been wearing heavy, high-topped work boots when that stuff splashed on his ankles or he might have lost a foot). Add any incendiary or tracer rounds to the mix and there can easily be flames.

I would argue that it takes much longer in the game than in real life for a fire in a wing tank or fuselage to become catastrophic; I’ve seen a great deal of gun camera film showing B-17s and B-24s, much less Betties (and Sallies and Zeros and Oscars etc) folding up in seconds once a fire gets started anywhere near a fuel tank. Any sort of fuel plus lots of oxygen (at 200kph, the fire is getting plenty of oxygen) creates a blowtorch effect.

Whoosh!

cheers

horseback