BF109's and Stukas too hard to shoot down? Anyone else finding this?

[DocSigma]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

You must remember that the .303" British cartridge was adopted in 1888 as the standard infantry rifle round. It was designed to kill unarmoured, soft skinned human beings, not shoot down machines that had not been invented yet.

Rifle caliber machine guns, while still in use in most air forces at the start of WW2 were inadequate at best in the air to air role. It was not uncommon for German bombers to get back to their bases in France with hundreds of bullet holes in them.

To take down a fighter you must hit something vital. Hard to do from astern with what amounts to a fast firing deer rifle.

This is true and modeled well imo.


For example... It took me multiple bursts to take down or cause significant amounts of damage to a BF110 whereas the next BF110 I encountered it took one small, less than a second, burst to completely destroy the aircraft.. Difference was that the first plane I was putting rounds into the control surfaces whereas that second 110 got the rounds directly into its right engine and the thing went up in a ball of flame. Was kinda cool actually beause it was flying a tight wedge with it's wing leader and due to their proximity to each other the damage to the wingman also took out the wing leader.. very cool and I wish I had saved the track... It basically took me maybe 3 bullets to bring down two BF110's.

[TeeJay82]

Sometimes you are lucky, most times you aint

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by ReconNZ

Yeah good call re the convergence, unfortunately the bug whereby u cant set up your guns in the QMB is frustrating.

The tails of planes are largely empty right? So that many rounds into the tail, surely some of them would go on to harm the pilot? And where are the fuel tanks? Have yet to see a plane explode.

I've seen .303 rounds shoot through tree trunks, add in armour piercing rounds and surely a pilot would be harmed by that many rounds going into the back of his plane?

Plus when we take rounds from bombers, it only takes a couple before our planes are smoking or we are wounded, doesnt seem to be the same for AI planes..

The tails of planes are indeed largely empty, but the first thing your bullets meet is the armor plate protecting the pilot's back.
As for explosions, it's possible but harder and probably more realistic to achieve than it was in IL2. It seems that having fuel is enough to cause a fire but not an explosion, for the plane to explode we actually need to have vaporized fuel.

I have seen two Heinkels explode in the same sortie and i was flying a tracerless Spitfire with its less than ideal concentration of guns (the Hurricanes are usually more accurate to shoot with), in another one a Blenheim exploded as i was shooting it with the 110's machine guns and no cannons at all (i was out of cannon ammo and my gunner was reloading it).

The trick is to fire at the wings in concentrated short bursts and try to start a fuel leak. First burst starts the leak, you let it develop for a couple of seconds and then you fire a second burst that can possibly ignite the fuel vapors.

[JG53Harti]

No problem to down a 109 or Stuka.