Some corrections:
There was no need to attack on a 90º approach.
Attacks should be done on a 45º to 60º dive.
The concept that made those attacks good, was the armour on top back of most tanks.
It will seldom be thicker than 30mm, being the KV an exception with 40mm.
In game, the Bk canon are supposed to penetrate easily up to 35mm armour, making 40mm invulnerable to Bk attacks, never matter the angle.
Discussing effectivity of air weapons against tanks, assuming that a kill is only such when the tank is destroyed for good, it's actually hilaryous.
Damaging tracks, killing engines, putting them on fire, force them to button up, and so on, are succesfull air attacks.
Il2 37mm canon, were a failure because they were not synched. They were useless against tanks. Actually they found some use as anti shipping weapon, where aiming wasn't that important.
On the other side, Stuka G weapons, were reasonably effective, the main problem with the aircraft itself, was it's low surviving capability once it was attacked by enemy fighters... as long as enemy fighters weren't as useles as the ones on Rudell's accounts.
Hs129, when they were not harassed by enemy air opposition, were quite effective. At first, when they were first used on the battle of Kharkov, they tried for the first time a 30mm PaK. Pilots were critical of the weapon, because they believed it was useless, so they called it so, but at the end of the battle, when german troops advenced and reached knocked out T34's, they discovered that the 30mm penetrated T34's turret sides, and killed commander and gunner. Yes... they penetrated the turret armour!
In game, the development is quite good. You can kill many tanks with the Ju87G, by doing a 45º dive, and firing on convergence. You have a single shot to take with both bullets hitting the same place.
I use it at 300m, and calculate firing time by dive angle, and height. When I reach near convergence distance, I fire a single shot, and take care to climb again. Is useless to try a second shot, because you will only score near misses on the sides of the tank. Thay are a damn small target.
Also, on IL2 tanks won't change direction and make your aim somewhat more difficult. Same as ships, they don't engage on evasive maneuvers, so it is actually easyer to score a shot, because tanks are trotting ducks on a row.
|