The cannon mountings could be replaced by rails for rockets in a few hours, and during 1943 these planes were more often used, both in Italy and on the French coast, in rocket attacks. There is no confirmation from the German side of the effectiveness of the Hurricane IID and IVD. A very good show!” But a couple of weeks later, Advanced Air Headquarters Western Desert was complaining that there was now nothing for the Hurricane IIDs to shoot at-“the inherent weakness of a specialist force.” Thus, for October 26, the Squadron Operation Record Book announced (using Allied equivalents for Axis armor): “Another most successful operation, the Squadron being credited with two Honeys, two Crusaders, one unidentified tank, five armored cars, one semi-tracked vehicle and one lorry. Later, the addition of 350 pounds of extra armor in the Hurricane IVD slowed the plane down even more.Īt the Battle of Kursk, the Nazis Learned You Can’t Win a Tank Battle Without Air Powerĭespite these difficulties, the anti-tank Hurricane seemed to do well at El Alamein: By October 1942, there were five Hurricane IID squadrons in North Africa, and the most proficient of these, the by-then veteran 6 Squadron, claimed 43 German tanks destroyed for the loss of nine aircraft by the end of that month. The bulky wing-mounted 40mm armament reduced the aircraft’s speed to 210 mph, making it very vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire and aerial interception. On 6 Squadron’s second encounter with suitable ground targets, two German trucks were shot up (“one flamer”), but groundfire brought down one of the three attacking Hurricanes, the pilot escaping by parachute. 6 Squadron’s pilots quickly discovered one of the key disadvantages of going into combat with weaponry for which their aircraft were not specifically designed. First in action at Bir Hakim in June 1942, No. Nevertheless, the RAF was the first air force to field a dedicated anti-tank airplane, the Hawker Hurricane Mark IID, armed with two Vickers S 40mm cannons firing tungsten-tipped rounds. “That is the job of the anti-tank weapon on the ground, of the sapper with his tank-traps and mines, of our own tanks, and of the properly trained infantryman….The job of the air is to make it impossible for the tank to go on owing to shortage of fuel, food and ammunition.” Despite being slowed by its two wing-mounted 40mm Vickers cannons, the Hawker Hurricane IID proved potent against Axis tanks in North Africa. “It is not the job of the Air Force to stop deployed tanks,” wrote Air Vice Marshal John Slessor. Portal’s opinion was not shared by all his subordinates. For this we require armor piercing ammunition.” I believe we may do this, especially in open country, by attacking their supply vehicles and the armored fighting vehicles themselves. Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, the chief of air staff, wrote to Lord Beaverbrook, minister of aircraft production, on April 14, 1941: “If the Army cannot stop the German armored fighting vehicles, we must. In Britain, the Royal Air Force began thinking of specialist anti-tank aviation in the spring of 1941, after Erwin Rommel’s first successes in Libya. However, since the Red Army was then also developing the exceptionally well-protected KV-1 and T-34 tanks, against which 23mm ammunition would have been useless, it is questionable whether a specific anti-tank role was seriously considered. At that early stage of the war, the only air force much interested in the use of cannon-armed airplanes against vehicles was the Soviet Voyenno-Vozdushnye Sily (VVS), which in response to favorable reports regarding ground strafing in the Spanish Civil War was developing the heavily armored Sturmovik (ground-attack) aircraft, equipped with two 23mm cannons. The French Armée de l’Air made limited use of armor-piercing 20mm ammunition for Morane-Saulnier MS.406 fighters engaged in ground strafing during the May-June 1940 campaign in France, but little is known about the results of those operations. But that image has little relation to the realities of close air support during the war. Tales of their exploits helped to firmly establish a positive image of anti-tank aviation in histories of the conflict. Luftwaffe legend Hans-Ulrich Rudel claimed to have destroyed 519 Soviet tanks, most of them while piloting a cannon-armed Junkers Ju-87G Panzerknäcker, or “tankbuster.” Aleksandr Yefimov, said to have destroyed 126 German tanks while flying the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik, was twice made a Hero of the Soviet Union. The effectiveness of anti-tank aircraft in World War II is taken for granted by most writers on the subject, offering a technophile orthodoxy that can be seamlessly woven together with accounts of later developments up to and including the Iraq wars. Think It's Easy to Destroy Tanks With Airplanes? Think Again Close
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |