Quote:
Originally Posted by Birgir Thorisson
From the accounts I have read on the air-warfare (primarily in the early part of WW2, when rear armament is light,) I am struck by the contrast between actions when rear-gunners are a non-factor, and when they are very effective. I can only conclude that it is the skill of individual gunner (vis-a-vis the skill of the attacking pilot) that is the differentiating factor. I cannot recall any instance of effective rear defence by Zerstörer gunners. Thus I suspect that they were little trained, and held in low regard by their respective pilots, but John Vasco should know something about that issue.
Juha. A rear gunner is trying to get a bead on a pursuing plane in horizontal turning contest. Do you know how much he is constrained by G-forces and slipstream? Is there a zone, outside of which he is unable to get his gun to bear on the pursuer. (e.g. 15 degrees, 30, 45, or some other figure.) Is there any known quantification of this window of opportunity?
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Do German sources reveal anything about rear gunners claiming kills?
I can only think of one simulator when it comes to quantification of all of this.
It's called IL-2: 1946. In some modified versions there are 10 flyable subtypes of the Bf110.
In my simming experience the Bf110 is a very potent weapon which, when used the "Rubensdoerffer way" has very good chances of making it home in one piece, mainly because of the speed at which you leave the target area after attacking.
Simulations involving 32 human players show that an incoming formation flown (as over the BoB fields such as Croydon, Biggin Hill etc) is virtually unstoppable.
In a re- enactment of an attack on Hawkinge, best tactics for the Gruppe proved those were the Erpr.Gr. flew around its targets and then attacked from the "hinterland", i.E. from the rear. Headed for its target in a shallow dive, approaching 600Km/h, dropping their bombs at very low level, keeping the heading and the energy of the shallow dive to get away heading home, and if needed the 109's could fend off enemy fighters, however they had their eyes on the fuel gauge and cannot dogfight for more than 5 minutes.
This re- enactment was run several times and even when the defenders knew what would happen the Erpr.Gruppe broke through and got away with it.
What if all Bf110's would have been assigned to this type of airfield attack?
What if these attacks would have been carried out underneath the "freie jagd" missions?
That would have been Fighter Command's biggest single threat indeed.
If this (very realistic) sim is anything to go by, the Bf 110 was deployed the wrong way most of the times, ill- used as the topic starter states.
