Best tank killer aircraft of WW2

[cheddar cheese]

hey, plan_D, as much as i respect the GT40, it is NOT i repeat NOT better than a DB9, then again, nothing is better than the old mini

anyway, time to get back on topic i think, ill make a topic in the misc forum for talking about cars

 

[plan_D]

I like the GT40 more, and it was designed and built by the British.

I think we've all agreed on the best tank killer though.

 

[Raymond Bellamy]

How about and honorable mention to the twin engine de Havilland Mosquito (4) .303 mg and (4) 20mm cannon .

 

[pbehn]

How about and honorable mention to the twin engine de Havilland Mosquito (4) .303 mg and (4) 20mm cannon

Little doubt that the Mosquito was heavily armed however it was more valuable than a tank and 20mm cannon dont destroy tanks.

 

[Robert Porter]

Mud. Mud was the best tank killer of WW2.

 

[Zyzygie]

For information
...While U.S. P-47s attacked enemy concentrations elsewhere in the area, the Battle of the Falaise Gap proved to be a field day for the Typhoons. Speeding from their cab ranks, they incessantly scourged the retreating Germans with rockets, bombs, and blazing machine guns. Flight Lieutenant H. Ambrose of No. 175 Squadron reported, "Some of the German Army did escape, of course, but the Typhoons and some Spitfires made mincemeat of the German Army at Falaise. They just blocked roads, stopped them moving, and just clobbered them. You could smell Falaise from 6,000 feet in the cockpit. The decomposing corpses of horses and flesh—burning flesh, the carnage was terrible. Falaise was the first heyday of the Typhoon..."

"One of the Greatest Killing Grounds of Any of the War Areas"
After the battle, the devastation in and around Falaise shocked all who witnessed it. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allied supreme commander, recorded, "The battlefield at Falaise was unquestionably one of the greatest killing grounds of any of the war areas. Roads, highways, and fields were so choked with destroyed equipment and with dead men and animals that passage through the area was extremely difficult. Forty-eight hours after the closing of the gap, I was conducted through it on foot, to encounter scenes that could be described only by Dante. It was literally possible to walk for hundreds of yards at a time, stepping on nothing but dead and decaying flesh."

It was during the Falaise action that Sir Sydney Camm's Typhoon performed spectacularly as a close-support fighter-bomber second to none. The plane that had such a troubled development and almost never become operational proved itself as perhaps the deadliest fighter in the Allied arsenal. Typhoons were in action for the rest of the European war as the Allied armies crossed the River Rhine and pushed into Germany. Soon, however, their season was over. Production was ended in 1944, with 3,205 Typhoons having been built. All but about 20 were produced by Gloster Aircraft Company.

Scourge of Falaise: The Hawker Typhoon​

 

[Zyzygie]

...RAF forward air controllers traveled with the ground forces and were able to call in Typhoon air support from squadrons loitering in the area. Striking with bombs, rockets, and cannon fire, Typhoon attacks had a debilitating effect on enemy morale. Playing a key role in the Normandy Campaign, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, later singled out the contributions the Typhoon made to the Allied victory...

World War II Fighters: Hawker Typhoon​

...The effect on the morale of German troops caught up in a Typhoon RP and cannon attack was decisive, with many tanks and vehicles being abandoned, in spite of superficial damage, such that a signal from the German Army's Chief of Staff stated that the attack had been brought to a standstill by 13:00 '...due to the employment of fighter-bombers by the enemy, and the absence of our own air-support.'[42] The 20 mm cannon also destroyed a large number of (unarmoured) support vehicles, laden with fuel and ammunition for the armoured vehicles.[43] On 10 July at Mortain, flying in support of the US 30th Infantry Division, Typhoons flew 294 sorties in the afternoon that day, firing 2,088 rockets and dropping 80 short tons (73 t) of bombs.[44] They engaged the German formations while the US 9th Air Force prevented German fighters from intervening. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, said of the Typhoons; "The chief credit in smashing the enemy's spearhead, however, must go to the rocket-firing Typhoon aircraft of the Second Tactical Air Force... The result of the strafing was that the enemy attack was effectively brought to a halt, and a threat was turned into a great victory."[45]