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Originally posted by Belisarius Hmm.. the Germans employed some other imaginative aircraft guns as well, didn't they? Like the vertical firing 40mm cannon mounted in the back of the fuselage? I think it was radar- or magnetic triggered, and when the fighter passed directly underneath a bomber, the guns would set off *blamblamblam* and shoot out the belly of the victim.
The shrang musick (sp) named because it looked like a pipe organ pointing out the top of the airplane. As I recall it pointed up at an angle so the bomber destroyer didn't have to fly directly under the bomber (not very smart to be directly under it when the target explodes).
thanks, John.
About the Sturmtiger: According to the info on wwiivehicles.com, we should be able to fire it once every 4-5 turns, during reload turns, it would require the crew to be very vulnerable as I believe it had to be loaded from the front. I suppose you could simulate the problem by only giving it 1 round, and if you wanted to fire it again, you would need an ammo truck. With only 4 to a company that makes 1 to a platoon!
I recall reading a story about another kind of Sturm tiger using recovered King tiger hulls, mounting the very large special guns that were used in the initial assault on Brest-Litovsk back in 41. 6 were supposedly built, none seeing action, all lost at Kummersdorf. The story included an anecdote about a winter 44-45 test firing taking place in about 2 feet of new snow. The KingSturm being driven out with one round into a patch of New snow to help judge the effects of the recoil. When the gun went off, everyone naturally had reflexsively blinked and turned away. When they looked back the KingSturm was missing. Apparently the crew had parked the monster on the frozen pond surface, and the belching monster had fallen through the ice when the gun was fired. Sorry, don't recall the source book on that one...
Apparently it was never recovered. The soviets overran the school. Maybe they recovered it?
Kanda'
Give a man a torch and he burns for a day, set a man on fire and he burns for the rest of his life! Bombers at 12 oclock HIGH!
I have an old book called "Men against tanks" - a nice history of anti-tank weapons development. In it, it mentions one of the desperation tactics employed by the Japanese - the anti-tank weapon consisted of a 500lb aircraft bomb hidden in a pit in the road with a soildier and a hammer.... I have not seen this mentioned elsewhere.
The shrang musick (sp) named because it looked like a pipe organ pointing out the top of the airplane. As I recall it pointed up at an angle so the bomber destroyer didn't have to fly directly under the bomber (not very smart to be directly under it when the target explodes).
thanks, John.
Schräge Musik, or Jazz("Slanting Music"), was indeed the name for such installations, though the basic idea dated to world war I.
However, what Belisarius is referring to is the Sondergerät 500 Jägerfaust/Jagdfaust, experimentally installed to the Me 163 Komet. http://www.sml.lr.tudelft.nl/~home/rob/ ... apon01.htm
