Quote:
Originally Posted by David603
To go into further detail on that battle, the B-24 entered combat with an altitude advantage, dived through the Zeros climbing headon attack and then continued in a shallow dive, meaning the Zeros took a very long time to close to effective range, leaving them as sitting ducks as they slowly closed in from dead astern.
Real pilots would not behave in that way, so yes the combat results were unrealistic, but I think that if real pilots chose to attack a well armed bomber such as the B-24 in that fashion then they would probably meet a similar fate, so I think the issue there was with pilot AI, rather than the hitting power of the guns.
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If the Zeros didn't have cannon, that might be almost plausible, but they do. Even coming in from dead astern, one Zero outguns one Liberator. Undefended bombers in daylight in WW2 were shot down. The US planes using 0.5 inch guns were better defended than most, but they still needed to fly in formation, and needed escorts.