Interview with Japanese Ace - Honda Minoru

[76IAP-Black]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sX7cMO5BqA

 

Maybe it was posted before, but it is realy interesting. Hope you guys enjoy it

[bzc3lk]

Wow oh wow, what an informative interview. I was touched by this man's humanity when describing his last victim,especially his regret and sadness for taking the life of the f6f pilot, as the war was nearly over.

 

Thank you for the link.

[76IAP-Black]

I thought it could be interesting for the upcoming pacific scenario of the il2 brand

[Swing]

very interesting interview

[=WH=PangolinWranglin]

That's real cool. 

[StG2_Manfred]

Interesting firing distances he's mentioning (~ 5:20 min) 

[76IAP-Black]

Similar to Hartmann, he said, you need to be as close as possible to get enough damage.

 

you can find it in a book called

 

"Holt Hartmann vom Himmel"

 

A very good reading

[=362nd_FS=Hiromachi]

Hey OP, could you exchange the link please for this one ? 

 

Thing is that DCS Aviator likes to steal others work while giving them no credit whatsover, the original interview was translated by Juno- TakaLeon and uploaded on his youtube channel over 1.5 year ago. All Aviator did was adding his watermark at the top right corner, so its a steal. Dont give him views, he already has more than he deserves.  

[Boaty-McBoatface]

What a character! 

 

thanks for the link bud

[Livai]

Similar to Hartmann, he said, you need to be as close as possible to get enough damage.

 

Nobody should try to shoot planes down more than 5 football fields away. Max. is 300 yards and 100 yards is very deadly!

Edited June 27, 2017 by Livai

[Finkeren]

Nobody should try to shoot planes down from 5 football fields away. Max. is 300 yards and 100 yards are very deadly!

As always, it depends on the situation. If you are attacking a formation of heavy bombers bristling with guns, you might well want to fire at as great a range as physically possible.

[Ribbon]

Thank you for sharing interview!

[StG2_Manfred]

Nobody should try to shoot planes down more than 5 football fields away. Max. is 300 yards and 100 yards is very deadly!

Exactly! And it didn't happen! The only occasion I read about was in the memoirs of Galland when in 1944 they attacked with a handful fighters 1000 US bombers. They emptied their guns with completely no effect and flew home with their hearts in their pants.

 

Those long range shots we have in game are completely nonsense.

Edited June 27, 2017 by StG2_Manfred

[DD_Arthur]

Exactly! And it didn't happen! The only occasion I read about was in the memoirs of Galland when in 1944 they attacked with a handful fighters 1000 US bombers. They emptied their guns with completely no effect and flew home with their hearts in their pants.

 

Those long range shots we have in game are completely nonsense.

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/29374-want-shoot-down-bomber/

[Wulf]

As always, it depends on the situation. If you are attacking a formation of heavy bombers bristling with guns, you might well want to fire at as great a range as physically possible.

 

 

Yeah, I don't doubt it for a moment.  In fact, if you had the option, I suspect you'd want to get just as far away from there as you possibly could - and keep going.  But that's not exactly what's being discussed here is it.  What we're talking about is, what is and what isn't 'effective'.  

 

Shooting at a moving target, from a moving gun platform, at long range (a range that would be a guesstimate at best), with not particularly accurate automatic weapons is going to be much less effective than shooting at the same target at a much closer distance where the spread of shot is concentrated and somewhere within the general vicinity of the pre-selected harmonization range.

 

Explaining to your superiors that you thought about it but concluded that an effective attack on the enemy would be, 'a bit risky', may not be particularly well received. 

[StG2_Manfred]

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/29374-want-shoot-down-bomber/

 

Interesting read! What is essentially said?

 

First subject is attacking straight and level flying bombers:

 

Fw 190 vs. B-17 Attack performed from 600m to 180m against bomber (the pursuit course drew the 190 into a position almost astern of the B-17, required lead became almost zero)

 

Second reported Fw-190 started attack at 1850m, but only did obtain 6 hits between a distance of 400m to 50m.

 

General reliability of the data: Cameras were installed first on the planes of Squadron and Flight Commanders, which would probably bias the records by including the better pilots.

 

...that average combat range more than doubled in two years (980m), as did duration of fire. The increase in duration of fire (8,3 sec.), caliber of armament and number of rounds fired in a pass helped to compensate for the increased average battle distance, and poorer accuracy of shooting

 

Part II Combat between fighters:

 

Principal observations are that shooting error is larger than in attack on bombers and the average firing distance is much smaller.

 

...probability of killing the enemy fighter does not appear to increase as the number of rounds fired exceeds about 50. It is suggested that the explanation is that when many rounds are fired, they represent fire opened at very long range and held to short range. Only the short range rounds are effective however.

[Livai]

As always, it depends on the situation. If you are attacking a formation of heavy bombers bristling with guns, you might well want to fire at as great a range as physically possible.

Physically possible but no grand success if you are not someone like George Beurling who has the accuracy and precision even to destroy small targets 700 yards away. Remember the gun effective range is 400 yards to shot down small targets like fighter planes 700 yards away, what is far beyond the mounted guns shooting range, you need to be an ACE in everything and beyond! The flying Terminator machine from 2029

 

Principal observations are that shooting error is larger than in attack on bombers and the average firing distance is much smaller.

 

Even on bombers the shooting error is still there. You need to shoot within your convergence range where 2 bullets are enough to take down a fighter plane. Everything above and below your convergence range you need much more bullets or time to take down something from the skies. Not only that you can't shoot more planes down what you probably do if you shoot within your convergence range. If you press the trigger for too long time you can expect jammed guns or empty guns or both. Even with much lower Convergence range than normal it is possible to shoot down bombers from long range because the bullets spread hit all engine from the enemy bomber at the same time. However you need to know at what range this happen, what distance the bullets have at this range from each other and if they match the wings from the enemy bomber. Complex mathematic calculation............

Edited June 29, 2017 by Livai

[Irgendjemand]

Interesting firing distances he's mentioning (~ 5:20 min) 

 

especially when compared to the multi kilometer kills one can achieve in BOX

[CUJO_1970]

Hellcat is going to give the Zero a very hard time.

[=362nd_FS=Hiromachi]

If that will be F6F-3 than no, if F6F-5 than probably yes. 

[CUJO_1970]

I'd be surprised if we didn't get F6F-3 first, but what do I know?

 

370 mph, maneuverable, rugged and 6 .50 cal... F6F-3 will be a handful.

[Gambit21]

Hellcat is going to give the Zero a very hard time.

 

Nah

Theory is one thing - actual practice is another.

Most of them will get sucked into knife fights on the deck - then we've got em.

[Feathered_IV]

A group of say, four Hellcats working in a coordinated manner, versus four Zeros without radios and working independently - my money would be on the Hellcats.

If it was just one on one however, I'd still expect the Zero to be able to hold its own.

[Finkeren]

Hellcats used on their own against Zeroes will be much the same situation as we currently have with Fw 190s vs. Yak-1s, in fact the Hellcat might be a bit worse off, because it has inferior power/weight ratio to the Zero and the gap in wing loading is even larger.

 

Just like the Fw 190, the Hellcat is undeniably the better fighter, but it won't matter, if it isn't flown to its strengths.

[=362nd_FS=Hiromachi]

I'd be surprised if we didn't get F6F-3 first, but what do I know?

 

370 mph, maneuverable, rugged and 6 .50 cal... F6F-3 will be a handful.

In terms of raw performance F6F-3 is not that far from a A6M5. 

 

Top speed – 335 mph(539 km/h) at 3,000 m  / 290 kts (537 km/h) at 3,350 m

363 mph  (584 km/h) at 6,000 m                    / 302 kts  (560 km/h) at 6,000 m

373 mph (601 km/h) at 7,100 m

Time to altitude – 3 min 36 sec to 3000 m     / 3 min 12 sec to 3000 m

7 min 36 sec to 6000 m                                 / 7 min 1 sec to 6000 m

 

Unless you climb high or fly exclusively on deck, the speed difference wont be noticeable. Maneuverability is good for its size and weight, but not close to Zero. But indeed its rugged and very well armed. And it can carry wide variety of ordnance as well. 

 

[wtornado]

Hellcat is going to give the Zero a very hard time.

 

Everything gives the Zero a hard time.

 

At least in the old IL-2 you could chase down planes in it but if it gets it's 1000 HP

engine and it is correctly modelled it is the Zero pilot that will be diving away and

trying to run.

[Gambit21]

Everything gives the Zero a hard time.

 

Nope

[=362nd_FS=Hiromachi]

Texas Flying Legends A6M3 mod 32 is coming together nicely !

 

[CUJO_1970]

Zero seems like it would be the ideal aircraft to learn to fly a warbird in.

 

Reliable radial engine, wide track landing gear, wonderful handling qualities...just looks like it would be a joy to fly.

[Sky_Wolf]

That is the best WWII pilot interview I have ever seen. Amazing detail, and quite the character. 

 

However, as Hiromachi notes, the OP posted a link to the interview offered by "DCS Aviator". This dude essentially took the original material from "-Juno- TakaLeon" and claimed it as his own without any reference to the maker/poster of the original video. Don't support that. 

[=362nd_FS=Hiromachi]

Here is a high quality footage from the display during Red Bull Air Race World Championship 2017 at Chiba in Japan.

https://www.facebook.com/zerofighterpilots/videos/1958991921011942/

 

One thing that surprised me was how short was takeoff. Aircraft jumped into air basically. 

[Felix_VF-3]

BTW, concerning the F6F:

This guy from 'strangemilitary' obviously didn't realize, this is a flightsim pic?!?

Please take a look:

<WWII FIGHTER PLANE WITH ENGINE BLOWN OFF! GRUMMAN HELLCAT>

http://www.strangemilitary.com/content/item/120757.html


And besides, the F6F is not a dive bomber...



The rest of the F6F photos from 'strangemilitary' are the real McCoy:

http://www.strangemilitary.com/scaction/search?keywords=Hellcat&c=GO%21&content_type_id=2&site_id=5

 

 

[Felix_VF-3]

BTW: Has anyone seen the movie "Kong: Skull Island"?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyZAsewX7XA

 

A japanese pilot carrying a Mauser C96 instead of a Nambu M14?