Best Tank Killer of WW2 continued

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lesofprimus said:
Does anyone remember hearing about the German Luftwaffe using Napalm????

For Tank Busting???
Click to expand...

No. The Germans had something called an "oil bomb", but it lacked the expansion and stickyness characteristics of napalm, and did not reach the same high temps or cover so wide an area. It was used mostly against British cities, and to a small degree against troops (with minimal success). I believe these bombs were basically cooking oil and a little kerosine to make it ignite better.

The Germans tried using the oil bombs in combat before the Allies started using napalm, but did not pursue it.

=S=

Lunatic
 
I would be skeptical of using MAD for something like these. Even modern MAD sets have to be fairly close to a submarine to detect it. And a submarine creates a much larger magnetic field than a tank. The idea was ingenious, but not very successful in practical terms.
 
mosquitoman said:
It probably works fine if there's a big group of tanks clustered together but it probably wouldn't work on a single tank
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The nature of the weapon was such that it would be useless against anything but a single target. I suspect it required the aircraft to fly very close above the target tank. The problem is that it would have been totally dependant on proper positioning of the attacking plane, and in general it's pretty hard to see a tank sized object from low level flight well enough to line up such a weapon. It would fire even if the plane were a little off to either side, thus requring at least 3 rounds be fired (one direct, one to each side) to give much chance of hitting a tank target, and even then odds of a kill would be somewhat limited.

In my opinion, Napalm was the best ant-tank weapon, followed by clusters of large numbers of small bombs (as used by both the Soviets and the Germans), followed by anti-tank cannon such as the NS-37.

=S=

Lunatic
 
Indeed, it was for single target only.

A plane without those complications: The reliable Junker Ju-87G-2.

Here a rare video of a Stuka Attacking Russian Js-2s in Hungary, late 1944.
 

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CharlesBronson said:
Indeed, it was for single target only.

A plane without those complications: The reliable Junker Ju-87G-2.

Here a rare video of a Stuka Attacking Russian Js-2s in Hungary, late 1944.
Click to expand...

I seriously doubt that is real combat footage. It looks like a German propaganda film to encourage its troops. For one thing, the dive angle is too steep to be effective. For cannoning tanks you needed to make a much lower attack run.

The problem with the Stuka (or the IL-2/10 or Hurri-IID) was the plane was extremely exposed to ground fire while making its attack, and was quite vulnerable to enemy fighters, and results were dependent on many uncontrollable factors. Far less than a 1:1 ratio of attack runs vs. tanks killed was achieved. If you check into it, I would bet you will find something greater (probably far greater) than a 5:1 ratio of anti-tank sorties vs. tanks killed. It was just not that easy to get a good opportunity for a tank kill, often battlefield smoke and dust made it nearly impossible.

With napalm, and to a lesser degree the cluster bombs, one fighter could make a high speed pass and have an extremely good chance of killing the target tank(s). The area of effect was so huge it did not require the precision of cannon, and even the heaviest tanks could be destroyed from any angle. Napalm also had the advantage over cluster bombs in that no special dispensers were necessary.

=S=

Lunatic
 
the films are real enough and yes that is the right attack anle and even steeper to pounce on the roof and deck of the Soviet armor.

Yes a propaganda film from the Deustsche Wochenschau of which I have several.

Case in point, 1-2 Ju 87G's are attacking something, and then next clip are JS tanks sitting by the road, not proving they were attacked by Ju 87's . It was quite typical to take action footage and piece it together for the folks back home as a moral booster..............they were to learn soon enough in 45 what real war was

E ~
 
I have at least three showing T-34's in 2 scenes getting their guts ripped out and also one of Soviet Churchills getting taken out.

sorry no can do
 
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