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Old December 8th 03, 06:56 PM
Jukka O. Kauppinen
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On a fighter equipped with machine guns and 20mm cannon, how common was it
to fire BOTH weapons at the same time?


It would depend on the weapons themselves and what was preferred, either
by squadron or by the pilot.

High velocity machine guns combined to low velocity cannons, like in
early Zeros or 109 E-models, weren't too suited to firing together
unless in close range.

Later 109 models or Focke Wulfs were equipped with machine guns and
cannons that had fairly equal bullet trajectory and the weapons were set
up such as the bullets from the various weapons flew approximately (or
exactly) with same trajectory.

Also, the weapons in Me 109 and I suspect as well as in FW 190s were
electrically triggered. The 109 stick had a small "electrical board"
which made it possible to change / connect any of the four buttons on
the stick to whatever combination was needed. Some Finnish pilots
preferred to wire all guns into the trigger, others kept the standard
configuration (machine guns on trigger, cannons on top button). With
cannonboot Messerschmitts nose cannon and machine guns were fired with
trigger, wing cannons with top button.

jok