what about P-47 machine guns loaded with 100% APIs ?!?

[Flyingkag]

Hey all,

a friend of mine spoke to me about a P-47 crash site he had been searching about; he was able many years ago to discover maybe about 100 bullets or still complete rounds of cal. .50 ammunition, and ALL of them (100%) were APIs with silver painted top.

Was it usual that P-47 planes used such a loading, using NO tracers?

Seems to me very "dangerous" when a dogfight would happen, not to be able to adjust the trajectory of the bullets when no tracers are used!

OK, on a straffing run the pilot can a little bit "adjust" the trajectory of the plane and make it "come" onto the target, seing the impacts moving forwar on ground, but that is probably less effecient than using tracers in some of the guns, not right?

Did they maybe use (in october 1944 in eastern France) such a curious 100% API loading because they would have been short on ammunition and would have had no more other linked ammo combinations on airfield?

Thanks for sharing your opinion about that, guys!

Best feelings from France, Mathias

[RSwank]

Yes they did load all APIs. See this link for example. There is also an explanation of the effects.

https://books.google.com/books?id=36...rafing&f=false


"Our guns were now being loaded exclusively with armor-piercing incendiary (API) instead of the 2-2-1 loading....."

[Flyingkag]

Thanks for your sharp and kind answer! the statement in the book linked is really clear;

Another P-47 pilot (Jack PITTS, he wrote a great book about his WWII P-47 pilot experience over Europe) explained that some pilots prefered to use 100% of normal "ball M2" in 4 guns (the outside ones I believe), because the "M2 ball" bullet had a higher weight, and so higher cynetic energy given on impact."

Do you agree?

Thanks for all, Mathias

[RSwank]

There is a book called "America's Top Aces in their own Words -Eighth Air Force" by William Hess.
Many aces give their ammunition loads and many are all API. This link pulls up several and you can scroll down and read them. They discuss the importance of seeing the flash of the API strikes on both air and ground targets.

https://books.google.com/books?id=80...%20API&f=false

Another book, "Allied Strafing in World War II: A Cockpit View of Air to Ground Battle" by Willam B Colgan has quite a bit of info.

https://books.google.com/books?id=Gu...%20API&f=false

He discusses why the API round was developed and also various other "mixes" of rounds, the reasoning for the various combinations and the effects.

A couple of interesting ideas:
On book page 55: German FW-190 head-on attacks of USAAF bombers triggered the need for a round that would both penetrate the radial engine of the FW-190 and carry incendiary action into the airframe. The round was developed over 4 months (June-October) 1943. It was later improved with a refined incendiary action and a higher muzzle velocity .

A few standard loadouts were mixes of AP, Incendiary and tracer, then API and tracer, etc. Some API and Tracers loads were 5 to 1 and then 10 to 1. The book's author says he used API and tracer. He discusses why he thinks having the tracer in the mix was useful, not for aiming, as the tracers followed a different arc, but rather to "inform" the pilot on whether all his guns were properly aimed and when the barrel of a gun was worn,etc . (Also discussed on page 55).

Perhaps a pilot would use whatever ammunition loading "worked" for him.

[Flyingkag]

really very interesting!

thanks so much for the detailled answer, and the pecious books links attached; sure I will read them in my summer hollidays!

Have a nice summer!

Mathias, Strasbourg France