Minuted t1_j60o7o0 wrote
Reply to comment by krattalak in TIL that World War II Spitfires only had about 20 seconds of 'gun time' before running out of ammo, making most movie depictions wildly inaccurate by TimmyIsBaller
Honestly it seems like quite a lot if you sit and count out 20 seconds. Obviously up there in the heat of battle I'd imagine it didn't feel quite so generous, but I'd guess even a second or two of gunfire would do a lot of damage to anything in its way.
>A three-second burst from eight .303s produced 13 pounds of projectiles downrange while the 109’s combined cannon/MG battery yielded 18 pounds. But undoubtedly far less than 10 percent of all rounds fired connected with a target, which is why so few pilots became aces.
I guess you have to keep in mind the distances they would be firing from, and in a dog-fight the movement necessitating the huge amount of ammunition to increase the chances of a single hit.
I'm trying to find out how many rounds per second they'd put out, but still, 20 seconds of something that can put out nearly 5 pounds (2.2 kilos) of metal at supersonic speeds per second... I'm seeing about 20 rounds per second from each .303 gun, with eight guns on a Spitfire, so 160 rounds per second. Though there's a lot of variation across different types of aircraft and model.
I'd be morbidly curious about how much damage you could do if you could line up a Spitfire (or any WWII fighter) and unload all 20 seconds of ammunition onto a test target, if the guns could sustain 20 seconds. Even if not you could fire in burst rounds and see a similar effect.
My main point was that 20 seconds seems like a long time given just how much these guns put out but I ended up rambling. 20 seconds of watching a sunset is a lot different to 20 seconds of noise and fury.
dddxdxcccvvvvvvv t1_j60roti wrote
Roald Dhal writes very vividly about his ww2 flying experiences in going solo.
kelldricked t1_j60ufru wrote
20 seconds of shooting and fury is probaly longer since your so full of adrenilin that you percieve it a lot slower.
tminus7700 t1_j621s1g wrote
> But undoubtedly far less than 10 percent of all rounds fired connected with a target
I've heard far, far less than that. https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/1711/number-of-bullets-used-in-ww2
>The number of bullets fired per kill varies based on the source from 5k to 50k.
WesternOne9990 t1_j623m3q wrote
Yeah I’d hedge my bets on the far end of the estimates even.
Rexel450 t1_j69c67h wrote
> I'm trying to find out how many rounds per second they'd put out
P51P-51 Mustang armed with six Browning M2 .50 in machine guns, each firing at the exact equal rate, 13 rds a second, 800 rounds per minute: 1880 rds, (400 rds each inboard, 270 rds each outboard)
Shutterstormphoto t1_j64tqdz wrote
I’d imagine you shoot for less than a second at a time. It’s pretty hard to line someone up for a long time since they’re trying to dodge. Even a 1s arc would cover a lot of ground if you’re pulling the stick. Strafing runs in movies often are less than 10s too.
lennybird t1_j64ke60 wrote
Jericho_Falling t1_j67sv40 wrote
Here’s footage showing a captured German 30mm cannon firing Minengeschoß rounds at British aircraft, obviously the power is far higher than smaller calibers but even a few well placed .30cal shots would be more than enough to cripple control surfaces
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