.303's

[Sven]

Originally Posted by TheGrunch

I've got all guns loaded with AP-DeWilde-AP-DeWilde-... from start to finish, all harmonised at 100m horizontal and vertical. Seems to work nicely, 109s brew up a treat and if you aim steadily at one component on the bombers you can make a right mess.

You'll shoot the whole RAF's stock of DeWildes in no time

[Georgio41]

Yea in reality the DeWildes were in very short supply.
In air terms the .303 was really a stop-gap as it was the 'stock' calibre of the majority of UK forces; the last thing the chiefs wanted was a diversity of calibres, so the .303 catered for everyone from the humble tommy's Enfield to fighters and bomber defence.

I guess with all the defence cut-backs in the inter-war years, the RAF developing cannons was never going to happen, if our fighters (spit) and bombers (Blenheim) development had to be funded privately.
Doubtless if the RAF had their way with funding, they would have developed the jet engine quicker especially when you consider that Whittle had a prototype running in 1937...

Needs muster as the saying goes, which is why after millions of German 9mm rounds were captured in N.Africa, the infamous sten gun was knocked up to utilise the round; not a good gun and very good at chopping fingers off the unwary but at least it hurt less to be firing it than to be infront of it...

Originally Posted by Sven

You'll shoot the whole RAF's stock of DeWildes in no time

Originally Posted by Georgio41

Needs muster as the saying goes, which is why after millions of German 9mm rounds were captured in N.Africa, the infamous sten gun was knocked up to utilise the round; not a good gun and very good at chopping fingers off the unwary but at least it hurt less to be firing it than to be infront of it...

That's interesting, I didn't know about this ammo capture in N.Africa, when did it occur?

[Georgio41]

Apparently 1940-41 though there does seem to be some discrepancy over if the 9mm was German or Italian.
When I was a kid my Great Uncle related a story to me of chasing the Germans out of a city (he didn't specify) and then finding massive stores of ammunition left behind.
He also told me of being in a foxhole in the desert during a battle and having a large calibre round hit the back of his pit. He jumped out of the pit in case it exploded but it didn't. He says he almost pooped his pants when he looked down and saw that spinning between his feet.

As a footnote he was then sent to Singapore just in time to be captured by the Japanese from where he went to work on the railway in Burma which he survived by eating mashed cockroaches collected from the latrines.

He survived the war without any injury, but in an ironic twist of fate he died from gangerene; he was showing me the derelict site where he used to work in a chalk pit and stepped on a rusty nail.

Even though this became infected, he refused to get it treated until finally he had to have his leg amputated.
He died some months later just before he was due to have the other leg amputated as the gangerene had spread.

A stupid end to a stubborn old soldier but I guess after all he'd been through a simple nail seemed rediculous to worry about.

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger

That's interesting, I didn't know about this ammo capture in N.Africa, when did it occur?

I don't have much difficulties downing planes with my Brownings with the exception of the Heinkel which is really very strong. But I think it is ok. Don't forget that downing a bomber was a team effort and it is supposed to be hard to shoot one down. Just read about the kill statistics during the Battle of Britain and you realize that the number of planes shot down each day is rather small compared to the number of planes in the air. Particularly when you look at the number of downed planes during one engagement. Very little and very often there had been an engagement with damages issued but no kill achieved and both sides flew home.

We had been spoiled too much by IL2 where the fire power was excessive imho and over-done me thinks. Just forget about IL2 and what was possible with this engine. It is a new game and I think it is more realistic concerning fire power.

[Kurfürst]

Originally Posted by Georgio41

Yea in reality the DeWildes were in very short supply.

That may be true, but then again, I plan to load up my E-4 with only Minengeschoss rounds for the 2cm cannons.. and it's only fair when I can have around 5 pounds of ultra high explosives for my cannons to play with, he can have a bit more than the usual amount of fireworks, too!

[reflected]

OK, I managed to change and save my loadouts via FMB - wish it would work in QMB too - but I couldn't find where to set the convergeance. Can you help me please?

PS: boy, those AP and deWildes really make a difference!

[Fragal]

you can't change convergence in the FMB have to do it through the plane options - open the loadout you saved in the FMB from the options page go to guns and the convergence is set in there for horizontal and vertical untick the default convergence box you can then set your convergence on the individual guns set your convergence then hit OK to save or save it on to the new loadout.

[reflected]

Originally Posted by Fragal

you can't change convergence in the FMB have to do it through the plane options - open the loadout you saved in the FMB from the options page go to guns and the convergence is set in there for horizontal and vertical untick the default convergence box you can then set your convergence on the individual guns set your convergence then hit OK to save or save it on to the new loadout.

hmm when I load the loadout saved in FMB in the options/plane menu, I can selevt it but it doesn1t load the actual loadout but the default one under mine's name.

[MD_Titus]

Originally Posted by Sternjaeger

this could be another of those "let's change history a bit" points IMHO.

303s didn't deliver the expected punch simply because a)they're small calibre and b)they weren't harmonised at a close distance, but used the (in)famous Dowding Spread, which was meant to create a "cloud" of bullets at 400 yards to defeat aiming inaccuracy and bring bombers down, but in reality it was simply a stupid idea, which only caused German bombers to come back with hundreds of holes in their fuselages.

The changes made by the 1st Sqn made the difference in fighting, with harmonisation to one point taken down to 250 yards, delivering a concentrated punch in one specific point by 8 machine guns.

The idea is to aim for the pilots fellas, you'll save a lot of ammo and shoot down a lot more enemies.. sad, but hey, war is hell!

how so, you say yourself that one squadron did this, and i have read varied accounts where pilots who knew they could shoot had their guns harmonised closer and tighter. we can just play as one of those pilots.

Originally Posted by Sven

You'll shoot the whole RAF's stock of DeWildes in no time

this may be true, but then to extend the argument, in late war scenarios the luftwaffe would have to be horrifically outnumbered, out-skilled, under supplied with fuel, ammunition and spares, and reliability would have to be far reduced as well.

however, where is the fun in that?