The success of the Bf109 depended on the surprise and positional advantage. Some JG leader on escort duty was reported to have waited 15 minutes for the chance to dive on steady targets before he ordered to engage, because he wanted his 109s to make kills and no just to drive off the interceptors. They experienced that they had only one chance to shoot down a Hurricane or a Spit, and that was the first bounce out of a favourable position. In that time the Hurricanes caused havoc amongst the bombers and the JG leader a few friends less.
What we are used to from 1946, to get scores with high deflection shots on evading targets, was reserved for some few virtuoso pilots like Marseille methinks. Well, on the other side the pilots back then, didn´t have endless hours of combat experience as we have. Anyhow I think hits as you described or in the situation a matter of luck and maybe only your AP rounds hit, so you simply don´t see the impact at all.
|