Love the story- probably apocryphal- of Germans running into a KV-1. The crew of the KV-1 were not good- but they were stalwart. The Germans managed to immobilize the KV-1- but they couldn't take it out with their tanks, couldn't with their anti-tank guns, finally brought in a 150 mm while distracting the KV-1 crew and took it out with direct fire from an artilery piece. Probably myth, but still like the story.
I had not heard that story, but thats not to say it cant be true. There was an incident where a KV1 well crewed took out 6 Panzer IV in a village
It was much more likely to be a P-47 or a Typhoon. The 51's main role was things like bomber escort. They use them in movies doing bombing runs and things because they look pretty.
Also because there are more P-51's still in flying condition than almost any other WW2 fighter- perhaps more than any. Not lots of P-47's still flying.
Ignorance is Bliss isn't that far off. Later variants of the P-51 could carry 2 x 150 gal. drop tanks, or 2 x 500 lb. bombs on the external wing pylons...they also used armor piercing bullets that were somewhat effective against tanks. Although known primarily as an air superiority fighter and not an attack aircraft, the RAF used a P-51 derivative known as the A-36 Apache as a dive bomber. It's feasible a P-51D could have dropped a 500 lb. bomb on a group of tanks...although these are gravity drops of a "dumb bomb" and accuracy probably wasn't stellar. I'm sure a degree of luck would be involved to hit a tank dead square on the turret. Still...very plausible. The Mustang could also carry up to 10 unguided rockets on removable "zero rails" in lieu of the drop tanks or bombs... and again, it's feasible these could be used in an anti-tank role. It's a fighter at it's core however, designed for long range bomber escort.
German pilot Hans Rudel destroyed a lot of Red Army tanks using a pair of wing mounted 37mm cannons in the J-87G variant...it made the Stuka very unmaneuverable and an easy target for air-to-air engagements..but as a tank killer, it was very effective... Rudel purportedly had up to 500 tank kills to his credit...
Gun cam footage of the J-87G in action... [video=youtube;cU6OK1zSxKg][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU6OK1zSxKg[/video]
Well, I provided video evidence of those 37mm cannons in action...don't know what more I can do. As I say though, used primarily on the Eastern front. The allies gained air superiority and a slow moving Stuka with two wing mounted cannons creating lots of drag and weight, would have been an easy mark for fighters...however on the Eastern front it fared well as a tank killer. Don't know what else to say about that if you doubt it's effectiveness...the Red Army just threw so much personnel and armor at the Reich, they lost by attrition and of course rough Winters. The Soviet IL-2 aircraft was no slouch either for ground attack...the Germans referred to it as "black death." Heavily armored and built for strafing/bombing entrenched infantry, not unlike the U.S. P-47. In terms of the Ju-87G it was too late and in too few numbers...the aerial mounted cannons took advantage of the relatively thinner armor on the top of the turret...and the more modern A-10 30mm cannon is designed as a tank killer along the same principle..top down anti-tank. Horizontal, it would not be very effective..but vertically...tank busting!
Yeah, but when dropping bombs they missed tanks a lot. Many tanks would require a direct hit to take them out. You could miss a truck by 10 metres and still destroy it, or an AA gun, or a group of men, but not tank.
