Shortround6
Major General
The British did have trouble with the Hispano shells exploding too soon but that was in 1940-41 and the problem was corrected later in the war.
This is what makes comparing these guns rather difficult. Many guns (and their ammo) did not stay static during the 6 years of war but the guns evolved as did their ammo so a late war gun and ammo combination gave rather different results than the "same" gun at the beginning of the war.
The American .50 got a big boost with the introduction of the M 8 API round. A combination round that combined both an AP core and a small quantity of incendiary material. Before it's introduction the Americans had to used mixed belts. Fighters used about 50/50 AP rounds and incendiary rounds with what ever percentage of tracer was in vogue at the time/place. Bombers used a much higher percentage of tracer. The AP just poked holes and the incendiary wouldn't penetrate. this M8 round was used in the big air battles over Germany in 1944 and is part of the reason that 4-6gun Mustangs did so well. If they had used the early mixed belts they would probably still have won but the margin might not have been quite the same.
this is something to consider when people make the argument that Four .50s worked just fine over Germany in 1944 so they should have worked just fine in 1940.
This is what makes comparing these guns rather difficult. Many guns (and their ammo) did not stay static during the 6 years of war but the guns evolved as did their ammo so a late war gun and ammo combination gave rather different results than the "same" gun at the beginning of the war.
The American .50 got a big boost with the introduction of the M 8 API round. A combination round that combined both an AP core and a small quantity of incendiary material. Before it's introduction the Americans had to used mixed belts. Fighters used about 50/50 AP rounds and incendiary rounds with what ever percentage of tracer was in vogue at the time/place. Bombers used a much higher percentage of tracer. The AP just poked holes and the incendiary wouldn't penetrate. this M8 round was used in the big air battles over Germany in 1944 and is part of the reason that 4-6gun Mustangs did so well. If they had used the early mixed belts they would probably still have won but the margin might not have been quite the same.
this is something to consider when people make the argument that Four .50s worked just fine over Germany in 1944 so they should have worked just fine in 1940.
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