Hi Juha,
>You seem not to understand the difficulties of aerial gunnery
Snapshots are standard operating procedure ... just look up Shaw's "Fighter Combat", page 20, to see I'm well in agreement with the author of "the fighter pilot's bible".
Shaw distinguishes between "snapshots" (the technique to use with the MK 108 at short range) and "tracking shots" (what the army taught you). As your army training was for tracking shots, you didn't learn about snapshots. However, the priorities in anti-aircraft fire are different from air-to-air fire, so it's not an oversight by your instructors - it's just that regarding our topic, you can't draw any valid conclusions from your army training.
A 'snapshot' is the same specific technique whether shooting at a clay target or a grouse in cover or in a tangential - out of plane shot to one point and time when you believe your barrel or a/c gun axix is crossing the line of flight of your target.
It can be done but requires much luck in addition to the flight skills of the pilot as the pilot generally can not follow and close for a lower deflection tracking shot.
>>Quote:" and how big are the chances of actually getting a crippling hit from debris when it happens? We're talking about infinitesimal chances here."
>Read again what Jabs wrote.
My quote actually started (emphasis added): "Yes, but how often does that happen during a DOGFIGHT, ...", as we're discussing fighter-vs.-fighter combat here.
I also asked for the chances of a CRIPPLING debris hit. If the target goes down at the price of some scratched paint on your Me 109, that's not much a problem even if it happens every time you kill an enemy fighter.
>The field is all yours, I'll not continue this conversation
Hm, that's slightly disappointing as I thought it was an interesting topic ... feel free to add more information if you come across relevant stuff in the future.
Regards,
Henning (HoHun)