Jerry W. Loper
Airman 1st Class
- 121
- Oct 2, 2007
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Probably the best way to use it would be the way it was used in the Battle of Britain. Let a fighter with better performance drive off the escort and have the Hurricanes go in after the bombers.
The problem is that only the Me 262 and/or Ta 152 were 'superior' to the escorting Mustangs.
Prior to P-51 the Hurricane IIc with the Merlin geared for high blower in 22-25K would have been at least as effective as the Fw 190 (IMO) at 25,000 feet - maybe not as fast but still good performance at 25K when the Fw was falling off from 20+K.
The Zero had 2 20mm cannon, but B17's did quite well defending themselves from them. What would the top speed of the Hurricane been at B17 bombing altitude? If it didn't have a large speed advantage over the bombers, it could have found itself struggling to overtake them while being hammered by defensive fire. Didn't the 50 outrange the 20mm?