Quote:
Originally Posted by koivis
The MG FF still used normal high-explosive shells, the Minengeschoss was just a special thin-walled shell, obviously containing more much more explosive.
The Germans used HE shells in even smaller calibres, namely 13 mm MG 131, and 15 mm MG 151.
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You're right. I meant the normal shells in the MG FF didn't contain enough explosive to cause serious damage to a plane. For example:
Sprenggranate: 3,7 g
Brandgranate: 3,6 g + 0,4 g incendiary
Minengeschoss: 18 g
The MG131 was invented in 1940 and primarily used as defensive guns in bombers. There were some special variants of the Bf 109 which had the MG131, but these were only for Galland and his friends^^. In 1943 it became standard in most Bf 109s. Its explosive shell only contains 1,4 g explosive.
The MG151/15 had 2,8 g of explosive but was invented in early 1941 with the Bf 109 F-2, a little bit too late for the BoB.
But let's get back to topic^^. They did use some explosive shells in their MG FF's but they were pretty useless.