About WW2 fighter aircraft firing power

[Tony Williams]

Originally Posted by Rob Philips

One other point that you raised in the articles. The presence of tracer is mentioned as undesirable, as it reduces space that could otherwise be filled with HE, and as tracer gave away the fact that somebody was shooting at you. On the other hand, wasn't tracer an excellent aid in deflection shooting, as the pilot could see where the rounds were going, enabling him to let the opponent fly into the pattern, or to chase the pattern into the opponent?

The problem was that by the time the tracers reached the target and the pilot could see that they were missing, it could be too late to correct. From the point of view of scoring hits it would be best to aim well ahead of a turning target then let your nose fall away, delivering raking fire. However, if you started by firing ahead of your target its pilot could see the tracers and take violent avoiding action.