Picture of the Day

[THeTA0123]

Disastorous raid. of the 178 B24's 53 got shot down




A ME410 finished its raid on a B17. Notice the BK5 bordkanonne

if i recall, this ME410 later re-tried to attack but was shot down by the defense gunners of the B17s

[Steel_Lion_FIN]

That would be interesting to have as axis "anti-tank Hurricane" (the one with two 40mm's)

[MaJ.P.Bouras]

A German soldier receiving the decoration of the Iron Cross, First Class, on the battlefield in Crete, May 1941

[THeTA0123]

That would be interesting to have as axis "anti-tank Hurricane" (the one with two 40mm's)

Well if we have Eastfront, the JU-87G lies open

Or that He129? the one with the 75MM cannon

[[WDW]Megaraptor]

Another Ploieşti pic:

[Mayhemic.MAD]

first 4 pictures are from Ploieşti : http://einestages.spiegel.de/static/topicalbumbackground/10341/der_lebenssaft_der_wehrmacht.html

[Kading]

Or that He129? the one with the 75MM cannon

I don't even have to look it up to know an aircraft that small cant withstand the recoil of a 75mm anything, much less a high velocity anti tank gun. IIRC, 50mm is the largest gun put in an aircraft for this role. One of these aircraft was the He129 i think, perhaps confusing your calibers?

Before anyone even goes "what about the B-25H!?", that was a larger aircraft that was built better. Not to mention it was a howitzer, with a much lower muzzle velocity.



EDIT:
Well I'll be damned. Someone was stupid enough to do it.

[VonMudra]

<shakes head>

Epic fail Kading.

[Kading]

Hey man, I'm looking at it from an engineering perspective. Would have made sense in a Do217 or something, but something smaller than a Bf110? Kiss your airframe goodbye.

[VonMudra]

Notice the gigantic muzzle brake for that reason

And they picked the He129 due to its incredibly heavy armour and being made specifically for the ground attack role, whereas a Do217 would be less armoured, and have far better uses.

[[WDW]Megaraptor]

Biggest gun mounted on a plane in WW2 was on the Mitsubishi Ki-109 Heavy Fighter Interceptor. It was basically a Ki-67 bomber with a Type 88 75mm flak gun mounted in the nose.



Unlike the others, this wasn't for ground attack. The idea was to shoot down B-29s by cruising just outside the range of their defensive .50cals and blast them out of the sky with the massive cannon.

The system never scored a kill, because the weight of the gun gave it poor climbing speed so it couldn't reach the B-29s. It also was useless for night fighting because it had no radar.

[THeTA0123]

And the B-25H dint carried a howitzer, it carried a lighter version of the sherman tanks gun 



Ground crews performing maintance on a B-25 H. Notice the many MG's and 75MM gun

[Fuchs]

IIRC same gun was later used on the Chaffee?

[THeTA0123]

IIRC same gun was later used on the Chaffee?

Dont know, but the wiki says so.
B-25 first used exact same gun as on the sherman. Then it got the ligthend version, wich was then used on the chaffee

[MaJ.P.Bouras]

Suda Bay, Crete, April 1941