Best tank killer aircraft of WW2 Part I

[the lancaster kicks ass]

it would have been very difficult to fly both in a straight line however..............

 

[Lightning Guy]

Did you notice the aircraft Erich mentioned from launching these missles? He 111, Ju 290, Do 17, He 177. Everyone of these planes features several crewmen so it is not that difficult to have one fly the plane and one fly the missle.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

sorry, i thought they were launched from fighters, my mistake...................

 

[cheddar cheese]

and those planes should really have had to worry about taking evasive, normally i think they would have had fighter escort?

 

[Erich]

surprisingly not as the heavy twin engines were involved with anti-shipping strikes, the Bf 110's and Ju 88's were involved in Allied bomber killing or ground strafing and bombing.

The anti ship killer's were pretty much on their own.............no thanks !

E~

 

[Lightning Guy]

Well they had some success. The Italian ship Roma was sunk by a guided missle as it was heading south to surrender.

 

[GermansRGeniuses]

And that was a BATTLESHIP (yes, I know it's Italian, but some of their equipment was well built but very vulnerable;e.g.~navy at Taranto).


The missle was a Fritz X, by the way.

 

[GermansRGeniuses]

....And there were two missles. http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/2833/wunderwaffen/missile/fritzx/fritzxn2.jpg

That's what remained of the ship.

One more thing, Fritz X wasn't a missle, it was a guided glide bomb. The impression that it was a missle might come from the flares used for guiding the missle look a bit like exhaust flames when used.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

didn't the americans use the first RADAR guided bomb in the PTO against jap shipping??

 

[Lightning Guy]

The Americans used a weapon named BAT but I am not very familiar with it. I believe it was used on PB4Y2 Privateers. Here are a couple of pics.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

yes that's the missile, i assume it was rocket powered?? i think it said it had a range of 20 miles..................

 

[Lightning Guy]

I'm not real familiar with it but I am fairly certain it would have been rocket powered as are most modern missles.

 

[Lightning Guy]

I did some checking on the Bat and here is what I found. The weapon entered combat in Jan. 1945 with the USN PB4Y2 Privateer patrol bombers. Each aircraft was capable of carrying two of the weapons. They were glide bombs (no motor at all) but glided very well; a maximum of 15-20 miles depending of release speed and altitude. They weighed approximately 1,600lbs with 1,000lbs of that being explosive. Guidance was by ACTIVE radar, the first time this was ever used (and very impressive for 1945). Several ships were damaged or sunk but it's success was limited to hitting ships in open water. If the ship was in port or otherwise near land the early seeker head would become confused by the multiple echoes and was likely to miss the intended target. Still, a very technologically advanced weapon for its time.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i'm suprised the germans didn't come up with a similar idea, or did they?? after all the germans came up with pretty much every other idea when it came to aircraft..................

 

[Lightning Guy]

I am not aware of any other active radar missiles being used by anybody during the war. In that since, at least, the Bat has to be considered one of the most advanced weapons of the war.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i would agree, along with the A-Bomb, which is a pretty obvious candidate...............

 

[Lightning Guy]

Very true. But I was more specifically refering to the guidance system. And an A-bomb didn't really need a guidance system.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

in terms of guidance i would say it's the most advanced guidace system i've heard of..................

 

[plan_D]

It is interesting to see the Americans, in one thing at least, ahead of the Germans. Who had the worlds first ballistic missile, the worlds first Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (On the drawing board), the worlds first air-to-air guided missile, the worlds first air-to-surface guided missile, the worlds first anti-aircraft missile. The list could go on...

 

[Lightning Guy]

Yes it could. I'm not sure what point you are trying to make there though.