Quote:
Originally Posted by Juha
Tony
firstly some general notes
Germany lost the war, so it didn’t develop a war-winning system
We still don’t know what was Rudel’s achievement, we only know what he claimed.
VVS wasn’t very happy with Il-2s with 37mm guns and concluded that large number of small hollow-charge bomblets was more effective antitank weapon than large calibre cannon, so the use of 37mm armed Il-2 was limited.
Personally I think that RAF should have kept some sqns which could have used 40mm Vickers S gun, it was capable to penetrate side and rear armour of all German AFVs but that of Tigers if terrain allowed shallow dive attacks from side and/or from rear. And the gun was very accurate.
Juha
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Juha.
1. I beg to differ. The all-arms systems developed by Russia and Germany were both war-winning in that they both won wars.
Germany's system won the war against France and Britain in 1940 at a time when Russia was allied with Germany and the USA was neutral.
And Russia of course won its Great Patriotic War with Germany in 1945.
It would be misleading to term the Anglo-Canadian or US systems as war-winning just because they were allied with Russia in 1945.
2. Rudel's achievement in terms of numbers, whatever they were, should not be allowed to affect the fact that shooting a tank with a gun from an aircraft was more accurate than with an RP, and Rudel tried and tested both.
3. Your point about the Il-2 is well taken and I thank you for that. Note the Il-2 did not rely on RPs to destroy tanks, but rather hollow-charge bomblets dropped from low-overflying aircraft that were armoured against infantry weapons.
4. We agree about the British 40mm. The RAF knew about the gun's accuracy compared with RPs, so the decision to scrap it was final proof that effectiveness did not feature among 2TAF's success criteria.
Tony