Steve Wilcox
Posts: 103
Joined: 8/17/2001 From: Victoria, BC, Canada Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: AmmoSgt quote:
ORIGINAL: chief Ammo while I have you on line.....subject: MG accuracy....I was a top deck (50cal twin)gunner on P2Vs etc. and a qualification, with a load of 200 rds/weapon, at 400' was one (1) hit out of three passes by the towing A/C on a sleeve.....just for S & G. Chief Go Blue Sharks I posted a link on another thread over on Depot I think, that on average in WW2 US Bombers shot down an enemy fighter every 12,000 something rounds fired , oddly enough US and German fighters had to fire just about as many to shoot down a plane as well. Hi AmmoSgt, the info given on the link looks to be mostly from Dirty Little Secrets of World War II by James F. Dunnigan and Albert A. Nofi. The site's author says: "Please note that statistics will vary from source to source. These are mostly taken from the books on my "recommended reading" page and are accurate to the best of my knowledge." Dirty Little Secrets of World War II is on that list. The website guy says: 8th Air Force: fired 76.9 million rounds of .50 caliber fired .7 million rounds of .30 caliber downed 6090 enemy aircraft had an average of 1 enemy plane shot down for each 12,700 rounds fired (1/12,700) 15th Air Force: fired 30 million rounds of .50 caliber downed 2110 enemy aircraft had an average of 1/14,200 The Germans' average was 1/12,000 Dirty Little Secrets of World War II (page 188-189) says: "During the air campaign against Germany the final (and for much of the war the only) line of defense of heavy bombers against interceptors was their own machine guns (and, to a lesser extent, those of nearby fighter escorts). In the course of operations against targets in Europe the Eighth Air Force (bombers and fighter escorts), which flew out of Great Britain, expended 76.9 million rounds of .50-caliber machine-gun ammunition plus nearly 0.7 million rounds of .30-caliber ammo, to account for 6,098 enemy aircraft, a ratio of about 12,700 rounds per kill. The Fifteenth Air Force, flying from Italy, expended about 30 million rounds of .50-caliber ammunition, downing 2,110 enemy aircraft, or about one for every 14,200 rounds fired. This may seem like a tremendous waste of ammunition, but the German antiaircraft gunners opposing the bombers were getting only about one kill for every 12,000 rounds fired, and that quite often with the vaunted 88mm antiaircraft gun." So the German figure of 12,000 rounds appears to refer to antiaircraft fire, not MG/cannon rounds expended by fighters, and the website guy didn't notice when he made his page. Hope this helps.
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