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1. The VGF-29 pilot was Lt.jg George Trumpter; the loss seems operational from the description in Lambert "Wildcats Over Casablanca", left his formation after takeoff with oil leak, failed to return (to USS Santee). Since there were no known encounters with French fighters in the Southern Task Force's area, (and none mentioned in Mordal's account from the French side), it seems speculative of Shores to add that one. Especially considering again that among the other 6 there's doubt about the cause of three already: Mikronis (AA according to him, though during an air combat), August and Connor.1. This would match what Shores wrote. a total of 7 F4F's. One of the seven includes Gerhardt and a pilot of VGF-29 who reported that his oil line had been cut and then was never heard from again. Shores suspects he fell afoul of a French fighter.
2. According to Shores, Flotilla IF's CO Vaisseau Folliot was shot down in his D.520 by Wildcats. The other 10 were Hawks though.
Hi Glider,
>To have the level of protection your hinting at, the Armour on a Ju87 Radiator would dwarf that on an Il2, loads of which were shot down my 20mm. Not likely.
I've got a Pilot Press cutaway of the Il-2 here that indicates a thickness of 6 mm for the Il-2 cowl armour, which encloses the Stormovik's radiator. The Ju 87D-3 cutaway in Eric Brown's "Wings of the Luftwaffe" shows 8 mm ventral armour beneath the oil reservoir, and an unspecified thickness of armour for the radiator.
If you found out that thickness figure, please share it with us. If you didn't, well - difficult to make reliable statements on something you don't know.
Regards,
Henning (HoHun)
Hi Nikademus,
I haven't seen any proof that the Battle of Britain Stukas were armoured, so where did you find this bit of information?
Remember I replied to your comment on Japanese pilots knowing how to hit effectively with cannon. You'd not get the account of the pilot who had been hit effectively because he would not come back to tell about it.
Oh well, my general impression from many internet discussions is actually that this is a conception usually born from poor understanding of the laws of statistics, and for some people perhaps from a refusal to part with their toy theories when they discover they are not supported by facts. Better to shoot the messenger
Here is the data on the B-17 vs. B-24:
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/hardest-plane-take-down-ww2-3114-5.html#post293977
Note that the statistics do in fact point towards a greater survivability of the B-24, but not necessarily towards a greater "ruggedness" as the B-24 has different performance charactistics from the B-17. All we can say is that in the end, fewer B-24s were lost per sortie than B-17s. (If we mean to discuss this in depth, I suggest we continue it over in the original thread to keep things organized
Hi Nikademus,
I was commenting on the effectiveness of the rearward armament of a dive bomber, and as far as I can tell the 64th Sentai was a fighter unit using its forward armament.
The difficulties of aiming a manually operated gun from a moving platform certainly make aimed fire at the radiator of an attacker impractical, and while the perception of any hits at all, effective or not, often (but not always) would make the attacker break off his attacks, I have read plenty of accounts showing that a hit in the radiator was only noticed by a pilot when the temperature gauge showed the engine was boiling.
That might lead to a "quick" end, but the dive bomber might have gone down as result of the continued attack all the same.
1. The VGF-29 pilot was Lt.jg George Trumpter; the loss seems operational from the description in Lambert "Wildcats Over Casablanca", left his formation after takeoff with oil leak, failed to return (to USS Santee). Since there were no known encounters with French fighters in the Southern Task Force's area, (and none mentioned in Mordal's account from the French side), it seems speculative of Shores to add that one. Especially considering again that among the other 6 there's doubt about the cause of three already: Mikronis (AA according to him, though during an air combat), August and Connor.
2. Foillot's loss was the one which matches the uncredited claim of VGF-26 at Port Lyautey I mentioned in the next paragraph. For Hawks I have a Squadron Signal book by Shores summarizing 6 lost (+5 'damaged') in first combat 4 in second. Do you get the details from "L'Aviation Vichy au Combat' or yet something else he wrote?
I'm on the minutiae level well off topic I know, but seems to me a straight down the middle analysis would count a likely maximum of 6 F4F's, and having taken the maximum there, wouldn't then split hairs by not counting French planes whose pilots crashed in accidents during combat, bellied, etc, so would come out a few higher than 11. Shores is one of the greats, but I question that particular accounting.
British Hispano II and its 20 degrees from angle of impactHi Glider,
>the 20mm would penetrate 19mm or armour at 400 yards at a deflection of 20 degrees
Hm, which 20 mm, and which 20 degrees?
And I wouldn't disagree with you. Ball penetrated 9mm of armour at 400 yards at 20 degrees from angle of impact, HE obviously wouldn't>Your implication that the radiator still may survive this sort of fire made me smile.
I implied and am ready to say explicitely that not every hit is going to penetrate. High-explosive incendiary and steel "ball" rounds, which made up a fair share of the belting for the British Hispano cannon, don't have the penetration of armour-piercing rounds.
Again I totally agree. There is less of a target area on a Radial as the cooling system is mostly behind the engine. On an in line, the radiator is out in the open ready to be hit.>I have this vision of a formation of Radiators flying along, imune to shell and shot with barely a scratch on the paintwork. The rest of the aircraft is of course shot to hell but never mind, the radiators carry on regardless.
Excellent picture - now imagine the same shot-to-hell aircraft with a happily purring radial engine in front. That's the radial's "big" survivability advantage ...
Yes I guess the other thing I'm suggesting is using more sources, I've mentioned 4 others, including newer ones directly quoting original US and French sources in detail (I've heard a rewrite/update of 'Fighters over Tunisia' is eventually forthcoming. ?).Something else; Fighters over Tunisia by Shores, Ring and Hess. (1975)
that kill (and possible another i'll add) could be called into question. Its rare when 2 different sources agree completely. One must also use their own judgement as well. As mentioned, i included it because the author specifically wrote that he felt it was "possible" a kill took place. But if someone wants to say its 6 vs. 7.
AP MkIIHi Glider,
>British Hispano II and its 20 degrees from angle of impact
What exact type of ammunition? What is the reference for measurement of that angle? What kind of armour plate?
The irony was lost on you my friend.>Again I totally agree.
Guess the irony was lost on you ... what your pretty image described was merely that you can (and with a fair likelihood will) shoot an aircraft "to hell" without even touching the engine. The radiator and oil cooler are just part of the total vulnerable area, and you'll have to run a serious analysis of projected target area to find out which aircraft is actually more vulnerable to fire, with the engine type being just one of several factors.
Again I agree, but on an inline all the radiator and all of the engine are visible and vulnerable. Generally speaking, on a radial one tends to be behind the other and the vulnerable area is less.>There is less of a target area on a Radial as the cooling system is mostly behind the engine. On an in line, the radiator is out in the open ready to be hit.
If you look at the diagrams Crumpp posted, you'll see that reality is more complex than that. And if you look at the SBD protection diagram I linked above, you'll see that for bullets coming from behind as during fighter attacks, oil reservoir and oil cooler of the SBD are actually in front of the engine, as the bullet sees it.
Again I agree, but on an inline all the radiator and all of the engine are visible and vulnerable. Generally speaking, on a radial one tends to be behind the other and the vulnerable area is less.
Dig it out for yourself, its easy to find and to give you a clue, part of this site. You haven't tried to look into it, just asked the same question different ways as a way of avoiding the obvious fact that a 20mm hit on a radiator at normal combat ranges will destroy the radiator and the plane will go down.Hi Glider,
>I also don't get where you are coming from as I have supplied everything I can
I'd additionally like to ask for your source, please.
>Again I agree, but on an inline all the radiator and all of the engine are visible and vulnerable.
If you'd look at a three-view, you'd notice that the radial engine has a larger frontal area than the inline engine. When we are analyzing rear attacks, the same applies to the rear area of both engines.
It would be hard to make any meaningful statement on relative vulnerability without actually measuring these areas, but - well, surprise me by not even trying.
At the end of the day the airforces (all of them) recognised that an in line was more vulnerable to damage than a Radial due to the vulnerability of the Radiator.
Makes you wonder why the British Air Ministry 'gently' encouraged aircraft manufacturers to respond to specification F.7/30 (1930) with the evaporatively-cooled Goshawk engine. Despite the aerodynamic advantages they must have known how vulnerable the system would have been in a bullet fight? In the end they selected the radial engined Gauntlet.
Do you know what evaporative cooling is and the differences?