Best tank killer aircraft of WW2

[kiwimac]

Doing a spot of research on this topic

Did you know some of the HE 177 that saw service were used as tank-busters!

In total more than 1,000 of many versions were built. Armed with various combinations of 20mm cannon, 13mm heavy machine guns and rifle-caliber guns, the He 177 carried up to 6,011kg of bombs or missiles, and in some types even went into action at "nought feet" as tank-busters carrying huge 50 or 75mm caliber guns.

Source http://www.scalecraft.com/browseproducts/Heinkel-He-177-Greif-(Griffin).HTML

As well JU88s and FW 190s were also used.

There were schemes to make use of the HE 162 as a tank-buster too.

Fascinating stuff


Kiwimac

 

[Lightning Guy]

Is anyone familiar with the A-38 Grizzly? It never saw service but would have carried a 75mm gun and reportadly outran a Mustang chase plane at low altitude. It would have been a bear of a tank-killer, literally.

Also, the technicians at Wright field produced some design scetches to fit a 75mm gun to a P-38 derivative. If either of these American planes had made it to serice . . . WOW!

 

[GermansRGeniuses]

Is anyone familiar with the A-38 Grizzly? It never saw service but would have carried a 75mm gun and reportadly outran a Mustang chase plane at low altitude. It would have been a bear of a tank-killer, literally.

Also, the technicians at Wright field produced some design scetches to fit a 75mm gun to a P-38 derivative. If either of these American planes had made it to serice . . . WOW!

as far as i can tell, the A-38 WAS a P-38 variant (Attack-38, not sure what P stands for) and to me, it looks a bit like a black widow because it has a turret as well

 

[Lightning Guy]

P was for Pursuit which is what the USAAC/F called its fighter planes before 1947 or so. The A-38 Grizzly was a completely different design from the P-38. The A-38 was built by Beechcraft, the P-38 by Lockheed.

 

[GermansRGeniuses]

P was for Pursuit which is what the USAAC/F called its fighter planes before 1947 or so. The A-38 Grizzly was a completely different design from the P-38. The A-38 was built by Beechcraft, the P-38 by Lockheed.

oh. Thanks for the info though!

 

[Lightning Guy]

No problem. Happy to help.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

kiwimac, is the plane pic in your post a Ju-88?............

 

[Lightning Guy]

Sure looks like a Ju-88 to me.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

not allot else in can be really..................

 

[plan_D]

What about the Henschel 129 that had a 75mm cannon? That was supposed to be a very effective tank buster, even if only 25 were made.

 

[Lightning Guy]

Didn't some of the Hs 129 have a gun designed to fire below and behind that was triggered by flying over a Soviet tank? I think I read that somewhere.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

how would it know what was a soviet and what was a german tank?

 

[Lightning Guy]

Well it would be triggered by passing over a tank. I'm not sure exactly what triggered it. It would be up to the pilot to tell what was Soviet and what was German.

 

[kiwimac]

They were recoil-less rifles (6x 75mm) triggered magnetically by flying over a large lump of metal, ie a tank! and only when armed!

Kiwimac

 

[GermansRGeniuses]

(recoil-less rifles="Bazookas") the guns were triggered by a magnetic field produced when flying over a tank. Fw-190's were also so equipped. so long as we are on the topic of anti tank rockets, didja know that modified R4M's were used to tank bust? Panzerblitz is what they were called.

 

[plan_D]

I don't know about the Hs129 with the recoil-less rifle but I know one variant had a 75mm cannon with 12 rounds, and it was facing forward.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

C.C, how many rounds did the 102mm cannon on the P.108 have?

 

[Lightning Guy]

The Il-2 carried 32 rounds to each of it's 37mm cannons which is nearly 3 times the ammunition load of a Ju-87G. I had never heard about the R4M being used air-to-ground. I thought that the Me-262 was the only German plane equipped to use them. And wasn't the R4M pretty small, like pencil then?

 

[plan_D]

The Stuka was poor though..so don't bother comparing it unless you want to make a poor plane look good.

 

[kiwimac]

Hey, Hey, Hey!

The Stuka rocks!

Kiwimac