Flying Tigers campaign while waiting for Pacific?

[=362nd_FS=Hiromachi]

 

 

If they don't have magnification (which I think you told me about this earlier but I cant remember now) they would be more like a  small field of view reflex sight, you can be a bit misaligned with the telescopic tube, but still the crosshairs would point to where the bullets are going, in the recent video the devs published we can see the A-20's gunner telescopic sights and look rather nice. I think we got kinda scared about them with IL-2 1946 or WT's implementations which weren't good. They would be better than common iron sights.

 

It looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's not really good for any rapid maneuvers, deflection shots and so on.

 

 

 

How does the Ho-103 compare to the Bredas for example? Or is it closer to say the Soviet UB in energy and rate of fire? IIRC they had explosive rounds as well.

                    Breda - Safat    /   Ho-103 

MV               765 m/s              770 m/s

Cyclic rate    700 rpm              930 - 990 rpm

 

Keep in mind that for both rate of fire is indicated when gun is not synchronized. When synchronized both suffer significantly. 

Difference is in ammunition, Japanese explosive rounds carried two to three times more explosive material along with some incendiary. They were of two types, fuzed and fuseless. The AP-T round was not particularly great but in following tests it proved to be able to penetrate armored plate in U.S. Army fighters so thats enough. I dont have any well documented tests of those, but only a bunch of observations, notes and stuff like that. If you are interested I can post that. 

I also have tables with elapsed time of flight and height of trajectory for Ho-103. At ranges up to 250 m the drop of the round if compared to M2 Browning API round was small, up to 500 m it was something around 20 %  and beyond 500 meters difference became significant. But since I never shoot beyond 400 m it doesnt concern me at all. 

 

 

 

But what if the bomb option associated with the later production machines ?

Oscar I could carry two 100 kg bombs, Oscar II could take two 250 kg bombs.

[BRADYS555]

According to :

 

http://www.quarryhs.co.uk/WW2guneffect.htm

 

The Italian and Japanese rounds were basically the same, thought it does not list the APT round or refer to the compasation of the ammo chain.

 

Synchronised weapons from what I understand typically suffered a 10% loss

Edited January 20, 2018 by BRADYS555

[=362nd_FS=Hiromachi]

I'm sorry but this website is wrong. Those rounds were not the same, not to mention that Italian ammunition had issues with Ho-103 guns and could either jam or explode in the barrel. By late 1942 I doubt any Italian ammunition was left. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Browning did not synchronize well. Since Ho-103 was a Browning adjusted to operate on 12.7x81SR, it suffered same issues. 

[BRADYS555]

My sources indicate that the early war HE with the mechanical fuse was eschinaly the same as the Italian HE ( in effect), The PETN fused HE coming in later in the war, I don’t have the entry date for that handy.

 

Was it the PETN fused shells that detonated in the barrel?

 

My sources also indicate that the Japanese typically used an ammo chain that was predominantly HE, do your sources have any info on this ?

 

While it’s true it was a browning derivative, it was, as was the Ho 5 a big improvement over the browning, what % was The penalty for synchronisation according to your sources

Edited January 20, 2018 by BRADYS555

[=362nd_FS=Hiromachi]

 

 

My sources indicate that the early war HE with the mechanical fuse was eschinaly the same as the Italian HE ( in effect), The PETN fused HE coming in later in the war, I don’t have the entry date for that handy. Was it the PETN fused shells that detonated in the barrel?

 

Early in the war a lot of ammunition was of Italian origin, manufactured by Bombini Parodi Delfino between 1937 to 1939 with Italian fuzes. Japanese Ma-103 rounds were fuzed with fuzes manufactured by Tokyo Arsenal and examined ones were manufactured between December 1941 and October 1943. Fuzes differed in design, but action was similar indeed. There was also that second round shown above, fuzeless, called Ma-103

 

This is what USSBS (United States Strategic Bombing Survey) had to say about Ma rounds for all kinds of calibers:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, as far as I'm aware it was a mix of Type 1 AP-T with Ma-102 / Ma-103 rounds, but not always explosive round predominant. Ammunition belts found in wrecks at Philippines in 1944 indicated that sometimes there were more AP-T rounds than explosive ones. In regard to reduction of cyclic rate due to synchronization I have no exact source, some indicate that there were instances where it could drop to 400 RPM while others lean toward 600+ RPM. Either way it was significant drop from 950+ RPM. 

[BRADYS555]

J-aircraft has this to say on the subject:

 

This paper presents evidence that while the twin 7.7mm version and twin 12.7mm version were introduced prior to the mixed armament version, the latter was introduced very early in the production run (prior to the outbreak of the Pacific War), was undoubtedly the major version of this aircraft to see action, and examples of operational aircraft with the alternative armaments are both relatively rare and may well have been retrofits. However, due to the ready inter-changeability of the two weapons types and absent direct evidence, the exact number of production types and retrofits could not be determined.

 

 

Ammunition belting for the 12.7mm cannon was described as almost entirely explosive (examined wrecks is India)

 

 

To return to the Ki 43-I’s captured at Munda. Their armament was described as “one fixed 7.7 mm machine gun, type 89 improvement B, mounted on the top right side of cowling and synchronized. One fixed 12.7 mm machine gun, B, mounted on the top left of the cowling.   Ammunition was described as standard ball and tracer for the 7.7mm with approximate capacity 500 rounds. A.P., H.E., and H.E. tracer for 12.7 mm with approximate capacity of 300 rounds. It was noted that it is possible to install two 12.7 mm without change in mounts

 

http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/rdunn/nakajima_ki43arm.htm

Edited January 23, 2018 by BRADYS555