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Old March 9th 04, 06:52 AM
Tony Williams
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"zxcv" wrote in message ...
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?


See: http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/WW2guneffect.htm for full details
of WW2 fighter guns and ammunition, and a comparison of their
effectiveness.

As other responders have said, the .50 was a good gun which met USAAF
needs (although the USN would have preferred to make more use of the
20mm). Other nations preferred to use cannon as they were more
destructive, even when (like the USSR) they had a good HMG available.

Tony Williams
Military gun and ammunition website: http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk
Discussion forum at: http://forums.delphiforums.com/autogun/messages/