A couple of silly LW questions...

[NickM]

Thank you both for your answers...funny about the Mk108; I thought it had a fairly high rate of fire (hence the 'jackhammer/pavement breaker' nickname--those things have always sounded fast to me!) but that it's muzzle velocity was low, making for a darned funny in flight trajectory. Also, I didn't realize that it was effective out to 300-400 meters.

NickM

[George Hopp]

Well, Nick, effective is a relative term. So, while the MK 108 shell would be great for blasting apart a bomber at 400m, you wouldn't want to be using it against a fighter because it had a such a low velocity and low cyclical rate. For instance, while it had an initial velocity of 500m/sec, by 400m it was down to ca. 331m/sec, needed a full second to get there, and (as I recall) had dropped 4.16m by the time it got there. So, it would not be a great weapon to use against a maneuvering fighter.

Yes, Lipfert used it to blow apart some IL-2s, but then he was a fantastic air fighter.