not really

Cannons are supposed to rip bombers to shreds tho

MEANWHILE

FUCKING FIDDY CALS RIP YOU APART AND SET YOU ON FIRE FROM OVER 1.5 KMS

🤔

Aight, chill.

@Inazuma
I mean in war thunder they are super fragile.
Historically, unless the lone fighter destroyed the tail control or killed the pilot and co pilot, he stood no real chance in taking down an Fortress, Liberator, or Super Fortress.
You can't just shear through the entirety of the bomber's wing with a few 20mm cannon rounds, let alone a handful of .50cals like Gaijin has gone and displayed.

[*Laughs in German cannons*]

I'm aware how good German cannons are my guy

Post war testing showed even a couple 30mm shots shattered a B17 clean

20mm was the same

Yes, a burst from 4 MG 108 30mm cannons will surely do the job

But in the air from actual combat reports, a lone fighter with 1 or 2 20mm cannons isn't just gonna tap the trigger, take off your entire steel constructed wing, and then fly off like Gaijin thinks

The introduction of the MG 108 and MG 103 was a whole new phase in bomber hunting that took a new turn with new developments

I'm talking about your wise guy 109 or spaceship Spitnig that has no more than 1 second of ToT (Time on target) and your bomber just falls apart like Papier-mâché

Yeah no

A lone bomber vs a german fighter has no chance

or any fighter tbh

Extremely situational

From all reports on the Axis and Allies side it is extremely situational my guy

Those bombers are only tough against flak, fighter fire will easily rip apart an aircraft. The problem is actually aiming and scoring a hit

That's just not true though

A big target with no cover by itself is an easy kill for any fighter

Some of the largest batches of info of German Fighters vs B-17s is from Operation Husky

The allied invasion of Sicily

In that theatre, Mid -1943 That was really the peak of both the Allies and Axis side with overall performance

@RoflTank You know more about this

Time and time again you saw where yeah, in some situations there would be a German fighter that gets the hits it needs to kill the B-17, in other situations the B-17 would take what it had to give and more, while still making it home. The majority of B-17s lost in Husky was due to the overwhelming amount of Flak placed in key areas of the Island

It depends if the gunners get a licks shot

And that's the fucking B-17

A good hit by a .50 to the pilot or engine could force the attacking fighter to break off or kill it outright

The B-17 was an outdated heavy bomber (designed in 1936), going slow enough for a fucking Bi-plane to catch it

By the time of 1943 that is

Up until 43 it was fine

but it was pushing it's luck that far

@Magos Squid "The Life Raft" During and post-war, testing showed that a single Mk108 30mm firing HEM needed only 5 rounds to cause catastrophic airframe failure on your average bomber.

Well yeah, that's the best thing they had

I'm talking about the average 20mm cannon

20mm HEM needed significantly more shells, something like 40-60, mainly because while it had a fuckload of HE per shell, it was still a tiny 20mm shell.

MG 151/20 and in comparison Hispano Mk.Vs, AN/M2s, and then whatever the fuck the Nips used

Meanwhile 30mm HEM model A had like... 85g of HE, more than most bomber-hunter 37mm guns had in their HE shells