De Wilde, or armor piercing?

[reflected]

Regular bullets aren't worth sh*. Then there are tracers, which kill your FPS and don't cause any damage. I put one round of tracer in every 4, and only in the outside guns.

That leaves the AP and the De Wilde as the most effective types of ammo, isn't that correct?

Filling my guns with half this and half that didn't prove to be very useful. It only does a half job, whatever you're shooting at. Yesterday I tried to use only AP-s. I got a lot more piot kills, but the apparent damage wasn't much more serious. Should I try with DeWilde only? How would that cope with Heinkels and 109s? In many books I've read about this latter, but I've never seen AP-s being mentioned.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[_RAAF_Smouch]

Essentially I have a mix of AP, API and then the White tracer in all 8 guns.

One tracer in every five.

[pupo162]

mine shells?

well i tried to do a dewilde mix and AP and i got some nice results with it. the first wing a ripped appart in COD was with thsi combo on a hurricane. i Think this has more to do with your accuracy and where you shoot. i ahve been used to aim at wings from my il2 1946, fw190/ me109 tempest flying days, i never suceeded much on p51 and other small caliber fighters becouse of this, Also i never gave much importance to convergence, i use to put convergence at 150 meters becosue i always fire at 100 or at 200. this too say, maybe dewilde if you aim at the wings, and AP if you are used to aim at the centerline , engine - pilot - controls of the aircraift

[pupaxx]

very good reading here on ammunitions during BoB...
http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/BoB.htm

an issue I think should be simulated, at least in online sessions, is the shortage of some cartriges (i.e. dewilde or m-Geschoss) and force the players to an historically correct mix of ball-AP-Incendiary and tracers.
Cheers

[JG52Uther]

Did pilots have a choice of what ammo they loaded their plane with, or was it just standard belting? I would guess the former, as I doubt there would have been time during the BoB to make up individual ammo belting.
IF that is the case, is it not 'gaming the game' to use custom belts?

[reflected]

Thanks for the link! It says that AP bullets weren't too effective, but De Wilde ammo was very much so.

According to books they mostly used that, whenever they could. Whether itwas their choice or a standard belting, I don't know. But using De Wilde-s is more historical than using AP-s, I guess. I might be wrong though.

[swiss]

Originally Posted by JG52Uther

Did pilots have a choice of what ammo they loaded their plane with, or was it just standard belting? I would guess the former, as I doubt there would have been time during the BoB to make up individual ammo belting.
IF that is the case, is it not 'gaming the game' to use custom belts?

1st:
This is still game, custom belts are part of the fun.
Following your logic I would have to fly wingtip to wingtip next to 110s...

2nd:
I dont think those belts came ready from the factory. In the field you get: Links, ammo amd a machine.
So, if you want a custom belt, talk to the ground crew and there you go.

Rem: Based on swiss army experience, the link assembly machine we had must have been from WWI, looked like a manual coffee grinder, lol.

[pupaxx]

Originally Posted by JG52Uther

Did pilots have a choice of what ammo they loaded their plane with, or was it just standard belting?....

i dont know, but for sure they were forced to face the availability for every type of ammo, that was not unlimited and the overall amount of them should be equally shared at squadron level (my thought)

[reflected]

Another source for the Battle of Britain armament gives four guns with ball, two with AP and two with incendiaries (presumably Mk VI) with four of the last 25 rounds being tracer (presumably Mk IV incendiary/tracer) to tell the pilot he was running out of ammunition. It is not clear why ball was used at all; presumably there was a shortage of the more effective loadings. (By 1942 the standard loading for fixed .303s was half loaded with AP and half with incendiary.)

This part is very interesting. So it was half AP half De Wilde after all, except in the beginning, when there was a shortage and they had to use regular ball ammo too.

Using AP only didn't prove to be more effective than half-half. Now I'll try De Wilde only and see, but I'll probably go back to half DW half AP.

[kristorf]

I have mine set as half and half, with the outers having white incedery trace mix for marking, also last 50 rounds in outer two guns with red trace as a warning. Works well for me with a 180 yard convergance