Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony Williams
Better known as the Browning .50 M2...it depends on how you measure success. Certainly US fighters armed with the .50 shot down lots of planes, but there are other factors involved than the quality of the gun: such as the superiority of the aircraft, the superiority of pilot training, superiority in numbers (later) and so on. And of course the fact that few planes carried anything other than the .50 meant it was bound to shoot down a lot of planes. What that doesn't tell you is whether or not they would have been even more successful if armed with a good cannon: personally, I think they would.
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I'm not arguing wether USAF swould have done better with something else than the M2. I merely replied to your point that the Germans and Russians went towards lower velocity, higher caliber weapons, my point being that the USAF stayed on higher velocity weapon, the M2, and even did consider another high velocity weapon, the 15mm MG 151, which was replaced by lower velocity weapon in Germany. In other words I'm saying that the air forces selected weapons with different standards and the USAF experience is just as relevant as German and Russian experience because the USAF results are undeniable (actually same can't be said about German results).
Infact I agree with you that the USAF might have done better by adopting a cannon like the Hispano or the MG 151. However, it's not the point discused here.