"zxcv"

It seems to me that the Germans and Japanese had a lot more cannon in their
planes than the Americans who seemed to rely almost totally on .50 machine
guns.

Why was that? What was the rate of fire or the 20mm cannons and what type
of projectiles did they fire?

I think it is pretty simple. They needed to shoot down bombers. We needed to
kill fighters. Eight Brownings with a nice synchonization gave a good spread
out to 300 yards or so. The folks with the cannons could fire from further away
at bigger targets and try to keep out of the massive MG fire of the bomber
formations.

I have some pictures of P47's with 20mm battle damage -- most hit from the
rear.

-- Charlie Springer