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Old March 8th 04, 11:23 PM
Cub Driver
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The American fifty-caliber machinegun was a formidable weapon,
especially against fighters. This size bullet was rarely used by other
nations, who tended to favor rifle-caliber (.30-cal or 7.x mm)
machineguns. The A6M2 Zero had two rifle-caliber guns and two 20 mm
cannon. The Wildcat with four fifties came out even against the Zero
during the first year of the war, despite the fact that the U.S.
pilots started out with the disadvantage of no combat experience. And
the Wildcat wasn't even considered a first-class American fighter!

When Germany and Japan realized they had to up-gun their fighters in
order to prevail against heavily defended and armored American
bombers, they naturally favored cannon. After the first year of the
war, the U.S. didn't have to contend much with enemy bombers; the
Americans were on the offensive, and U.S. fighters mostly battled
enemy fighters.

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?


all the best -- Dan Ford
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