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P51s and RAF Mustangs could carry 500Ib bombs or rockets and had 0.5in MGs or 20mm cannon not really "tank busting" equipment. Post war evaluation showed very few tanks were busted in Normandy. I remember the scene you are talking about in real life I think Tom Hanks would be dead and the tank would rumble on. Good film though.
Agreed - at the time of D-Day. Having said that the bomb racks were redesigned for increased bomb load of 1000 pounds each
Would the Mustamg have been any more of a tank killer in Korea? Israel in 48?
The A-36 didn't suffered from having a water cooled engine IMO. The single engine aircraft, even fighters, were capable to haul up to some 4000 lbs of under-slung weaponry, plus internal MGs or cannons; some fighters were obviously better than the others.
Granted, it took plenty of an effort from aircraft to actually destroy a tank.
As for Mustang (or other fighters) in Korea, there was an option to use napalm to kill tanks and other unlucky 'receivers'.
Rockets are hard to aim precisely, MGs and small calibre cannon cant destroy a tank.
P51 loss rates started to climb when they went down to straf airfields, ground fire was a bigger danger than LW fighters.
... busted everything around them trucks bowsers and men ...
the A 36 was a political plane serving mainly to keep the "P51" in production 500 were produced.
If you have air superiority I dont think it matters how fast your ground attack planes are especially if you are dive bombing.
The P 40 was produced until 1944 .
The US Army did not encounter Tiger tanks until after Operation Cobra, before then they had all operated against the British and Canadian sectors.To be really pedantic, Tom Hanks and his group would not have come up against Tiger tanks either, as the story was set just a few days after D-Day itself, with the first Tigers arriving on the front in very late June / early July, having traveled from the south of France, and been involved in some brutality on the way, such as Oradour sur Glane.