WWII Gun Camera Footage

[hw97karbine]

F6F Hellcat dives on a Mitsubishi Ki-46 "Dinah" over the Philippines in November 1944

 

[hw97karbine]

RAF Hawker Hurricanes flying in defense of Malta hit at close range by Messerschmitt Bf 109 F fighters of Jagdgeschwader 53 "Pik As" circa early 1942

 

[hw97karbine]

F6F Hellcat attacking a Japanese vessel in Manila Bay in December 1944 flies through gunfire from a fellow fighter. The aircraft starts to smoke moments later suggesting it has been struck by "friendly" bullets.

 

[hw97karbine]

P-47D Thunderbolt 42-22766 flow by Jack H. Culp under the guns of Major Anton Hackl's Fw 190 on May 4th 1944

Culp assigned to 361FS, 356FG, 8AF USAAF was shot down and survived to be captured as a Prisoner of War. By the time of this incident Hackl with Stab III. Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 11 had well over 100 confirmed kills to his name.

In the clip, Culp can be seen to jettison his port drop tank as tracers start to fly over his canopy. It appears he was not able to do the same with the starboard tank before it is struck by gunfire.

Hackl had been shot down and wounded less than a month previously on April 15th in combat against similar aircraft. He would survive the war credited with 192 enemy aircraft shot down in over 1,000 combat missions. The majority of his victories were claimed over the Eastern Front, with 87 claims over the Western Front. Of these latter victories over the Western Allies, at least 32 were four-engined bombers, a further 24 victories were unconfirmed. He died on July 10th 1984 in Regensburg.

Details on Culp are more sparse however it appears he continued to fly after the war and perished on September 27th 1967 in the following incident:

All seven people on an Aero Commander 500 shuttle plane were killed when the aircraft crashed into a bike rack outside of Bradfield Elementary School at the Dallas suburb of Highland Park, Texas. Nobody on the ground was injured because classes had been dismissed 20 minutes earlier for a teacher's meeting. On a regular school day, hundreds of children would have been leaving the building at 3:30, when the plane hit. "If this had happened any day but Wednesday", a teacher told reporters, "all of the kids would have been out by the bicycle rack." The pilot, Verner Denman, Jr., apparently made a nose dive into Mockingbird Lane to avoid striking homes. The Dallas County fire marshal praised Denman, saying "It could have been much worse if he had hit some of these houses here, or the middle of the school" (where a teacher's meeting was taking place, 50 feet from the crash site) and added "I think he knew he was going to die and said 'well, let's end it the best way.'"

The Missing Air Crew Report for Culp's failure to return states that the combat was not witnessed by other crews and he was accompanied only by Captain Sidney Hewett who was also shot down and captured.

 

[hw97karbine]

US Navy aircraft loses part of its port wing while strafing Japanese vessels in Manila in early 1945 seen through the gun camera of a fellow attacker

 

[hw97karbine]

USAAF B-24 Liberator bomber bursts into flames after a starboard wing fuel tank is torn open by cannon fire from a Luftwaffe fighter at point blank range in 1944. Given the size of the detonations and their almost immediate catastrophic effects I believe this might be an example of the 3cm MK 108 in action.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Given the size of the detonations and their almost immediate catastrophic effects I believe this might be an example of the 3cm MK 108 in action.

The size of debris being blown off would suggest this as well.

 

[hw97karbine]

Early Soviet Il-2 single seat Sturmovik under fire at close range from a Luftwaffe Bf 109 in the Summer of 1941

 

[hw97karbine]

Soviet fighter taking accurate cannon fire from a Luftwaffe Bf 109 circa early 1943

 

[hw97karbine]

RAF Bristol Beaufighter attacking Axis motor transport at extreme low level in North Africa circa 1941

 

[hw97karbine]

Something a little different, footage from cameras mounted on Canadian Sherman tanks during the drive to Antwerp circa September 1944

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Soviet fighter taking accurate cannon fire from a Luftwaffe Bf 109 circa early 1943

View attachment 831804

That's a tight grouping.

 

[hw97karbine]

Feldwebel Kurt Gren in a IV(Sturmjäger)./JG 3 Focke-Wulf Fw 190 scores his 22nd and penultimate victory downing a B-24 over Hungary on August 22nd 1944. The day after this footage was filmed, Gren shot down another B-24 before being KIA just days before his 25th birthday.

 

[Escuadrilla Azul]

Feldwebel Kurt Gren in a IV(Sturmjäger)./JG 3 Focke-Wulf Fw 190 scores his 22nd and penultimate victory downing a B-24 over Hungary on August 22nd 1944. The day after this footage was filmed, Gren shot down another B-24 before being KIA just days before his 25th birthday.

View attachment 833085

That is close!

 

[hw97karbine]

That is close!

Very close, the defensive armamemt was almost certainly combat ineffective. At this point in the war the recommended ammunition belt composition for 20mm cannon against 4-engined bombers was 1 high explosive : 1 incendiary : 1 armor piercing, so for every detonation we see there are another two projectiles in the air.

 

[hw97karbine]

USAAF Lockheed P-38 Lightning maneuvering under the guns of a Luftwaffe fighter circa late 1944

 

[Snautzer01]

USAAF Lockheed P-38 Lightning maneuvering under the guns of a Luftwaffe fighter circa late 1944

View attachment 833552

He is hit with cannon 3 or 4 times. I fear.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

He is hit with cannon 3 or 4 times. I fear.

That's what it looks like ... a bad day at the office for him.

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff!

 

[hw97karbine]

Japanese train on Tarakan strafed by a US fighter circa early 1945

from this compilation of gun camera footage of raids on Tarakan