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Originally Posted by RPS69
Sorry, I understood that you were implying a 90° dive. It wasn't clear.
Anyway 30mm are easily penned by 37mm BK, on any angle in between 45° and 90° at around 300m
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Penetration even if easily achieved is not a sure kill. It is possible even for a 122mm shell to penetrate and do no harm -though unlikely.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RPS69
I must disagree. The pilot job is done, it can't depend on the ground troops performance to be asigned as a kill.
Tank is abandoned, crew is badly injured, or temporarily out of comission, the attack is a kill.
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And that was just what happened. Pilots claimed kills because they believed to have destroyed a vehicle. But if not for a spectacular kill like a ammo cook-off, it is not easy for pilots to assure a kill, a hit vehicle may stop because its engine is dead, or crew killed - or it might just stop to engage a target.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RPS69
Many kills were scored by pilots that never realized that they were that successful. Not all kills are spectacular.
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Exactly. But this works the other way round too, e.g. many kills were claimed by pilots that were not sucessful. And also anything in camouflage is a tank, at least at 400 mph....
Quote:
Originally Posted by RPS69
Propaganda inflated most probably, as some other british bomber pilots.
Anyway, my comment was supposed to be an irony.
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Usually I'm sceptical, but Rudel was beyond human -and I don't mean that to be a compliment, and if such someone has a lot of luck, and quite some talent as a pilot he might as well get to such feats without cheating. He made a few thousand missions, and got shot down countless times, survived every time, if nothing else he is the luckiest WWII aviator ever.