P-39 Tank Busters

[tomo pauk]

You want to check that:

Yes, you are right, my mistake.

 

[bf109xxl]

I guess that not everybody saw the memo that someone should have produced on that subject. When the RAF first came up with the Hurricane IID. equipped with two 40MM cannon for tank busting, the USAAF bragged that the 37MM in the P-39 could do the job. But the RAF did testing using an actual captured German tank and found that the 37MM in the P-39 could not penetrate German armor. The 37MM in the P-39 was not even the equivalent of the 37MM used in the Stuart tank. It was designed only for air-to air use and had not nearly the required velocity to punch through armor.

Was the probability of hitting a tank evaluated during testing? According to the results of Soviet tests of 37 mm cannons (111P) on LaGG and Yak aircraft, the results were completely disappointing: even the most experienced pilots demonstrated a probability of only a few percent, while less trained pilots failed to hit the target at all - and this was at a much higher RoF!
It hardly makes sense to discuss penetration when the probability of direct hitting the target is zero.

One P-39 pilot in the Med said that the 37MM did a nice job of clearing the decks of barges, but nobody talked about the round penetrating significant armor.

The Soviets widely used Cobras to attack ground targets and naval vessels, but only attacks on lightly armored or unarmored targets like cars, locomotives, aircraft on airfields, and unarmored ships were effective when the target could be damaged by fragments. At the same time, I cannot recall any complaints about low penetration: apparently, the Soviets understood that no miracles were to be expected - Il-2s dropping hundreds of PTABs on tanks in a single sortie were much more effective.