By the beginning of World War II, there were no serial attack aircraft in Great Britain and the United States that could effectively deal with German tanks. The experience of hostilities in France and North Africa showed the low effectiveness of fighters and bombers in service when used against armored vehicles. So, during the battles in North Africa, a squadron of British Blenheim Mk I bombers, provided that each aircraft was loaded with four 113 kg high-explosive bombs, could destroy or seriously damage 1-2 enemy tanks. At the same time, due to the danger of being hit by fragments of their own bombs, the bombing was carried out from a horizontal flight from a height of at least 300 meters. The best results were predictably achieved when striking places of accumulation of tanks and columns of armored vehicles. Tanks deployed in battle formations were hardly vulnerable to bombers. Allied fighters with machine-gun and cannon armament of 12, 7-20 mm were also practically powerless against German medium tanks and self-propelled guns.
By the end of 1941, it became clear that the British Hurricanes in Africa were not capable of fighting on equal terms with the German Messerschmitt Bf 109F and Italian Macchi C.202 Folgore, and they were reclassified as fighter-bombers. Although in a number of cases pilots of Hurricane Mk IIС fighters with four Hispano Mk II cannons managed to disable Italian tankettes and armored cars, the effectiveness of such attacks was low. As practice has shown, even with the penetration of relatively thin armor, the armor action of 20-mm shells was weak and, as a rule, they did not cause serious damage. In this regard, on the basis of the "tropical" modification of the Hurricane IIB Trop, an attack version of the Hurricane IID was created, armed with two 40-mm Vickers S guns with 15 rounds per barrel. Before opening fire from the cannons, two 7.7 mm Browning.303 Mk II with tracer bullets could be used for zeroing. The combat use of aircraft with 40-mm cannons in the 6th RAF Squadron began in mid-1942.
Since the "artillery" fighter was to operate mainly near the ground, the cockpit and a number of the most vulnerable parts of the aircraft were partially covered with armor to protect against anti-aircraft fire. The additional load in the form of armor protection and cannons weighing 134 kg worsened the already not very high flight performance of the Hurricane.
The Hurricane IIE was followed by the Hurricane IIE. On this aircraft, 40mm cannons were housed in removable gondolas. Instead, eight 60-pound RP-3 missiles could be suspended, in addition to which there were two built-in 7, 7 mm Browning.303 Mk II machine guns. Instead of cannons and missiles, the aircraft could carry two outboard fuel tanks or two 250 lb (113 kg) bombs. It was not possible to use guns and missiles under different wings, since due to recoil during firing, the missiles fell off the guides. In order to reduce the vulnerability to shelling from the ground, the Hurricane IIE's armor has been further strengthened. Now, not only the cab and radiator have been protected, but the armor has also appeared on the sides of the engine. To compensate for the drop in flight data due to the increased takeoff weight, a Merlin 27 engine with a power of 1620 hp was installed on the aircraft. This model received the designation Hurricane Mk IV.
The aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of 3840 kg had a practical flight range of 640 km. With the installation of two outboard fuel tanks with a total capacity of 400 liters, the flight range increased to 1400 km. The maximum speed was 508 km / h, cruising speed was 465 km / h.
Despite the low characteristics, serial production of the Hurricane percussion continued until early 1944. For lack of a better, they were actively used against ground targets in the African campaign. According to the British, during the five-day battle of El Alamein, which began on the evening of October 23, 1942, six squadrons of Hurricane fighter-bombers in 842 sorties destroyed 39 tanks, more than 200 armored personnel carriers and trucks, 26 tank trucks with fuel and 42 artillery tools. Their own losses in the equipment were not disclosed, but it is known that 11 British pilots were killed during the execution of the assault airstrikes.
Pilots flying in North Africa in Hurricanes with 40-mm cannons reported the destruction of 47 tanks and about 200 pieces of other equipment. From June 1943, "artillery" attack aircraft began to operate in Europe. If in Africa the main targets were armored vehicles, then in Europe they mainly hunted for steam locomotives. In early 1944, attack aircraft were used against the Japanese in Burma. Since there were relatively few tanks in the Japanese army, fighter-bombers, using mainly 40-mm fragmentation shells, operated on transport communications and sank small ships in the coastal zone. In sorties, about a third of attack aircraft were lost from 700 Hurricanes with 40-mm cannons, even taking into account the local reservation, the aircraft turned out to be very vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire.
Although the British claimed that the effectiveness of firing at tanks was 25%, in reality, even very experienced pilots during the attack, at best, managed to hit the tank with 1-2 rounds. The British aircraft had the same drawback as the IL-2 with 37-mm cannons - due to the strong recoil, aimed firing was possible only with a burst of 2-3 shots. It was recommended to open aimed fire at a single tank from a distance of 500-400 m. In addition, the reliability of the Vickers S cannon left much to be desired. Delays and refusals in firing occurred in every 3-4 sorties. As in the case of the Soviet NS-37, aimed firing from one large-caliber gun in case of failure of the other was impossible - the plane turned around and only one projectile flew towards the target.
A 40-mm armor-piercing projectile weighing 1113 g, left the gun barrel with a length of 1, 7 m at a speed of 570 m / s, and at a distance of 300 m along the normal pierced a 50 mm armor plate. Theoretically, such an indicator of armor penetration made it possible to confidently fight against medium German tanks when fired at the side or from the stern. However, in practice, it was impossible to hit the armor of a tank at a right angle from a hollow dive plane. In these conditions, the shells often ricocheted, but even if the armor was penetrated, the destructive effect was usually small. In this regard, "Hurricanes" with "big guns" never became an effective anti-tank weapon.
By the beginning of 1944, the Allies realized the futility of creating specialized anti-tank attack aircraft with cannon armament. Although it is known that the Americans also tested an assault version of the Mustang with 40-mm Vickers S cannons. the mass and significant drag of large-caliber cannons worsened flight characteristics. On the basis of Vickers S, it was planned to create a 57-mm aircraft cannon with armor penetration up to 100 mm, but calculations showed that such a weapon would have excessive weight and unacceptably strong recoil for use on single-engine fighter-bombers, and work in this direction was curtailed.
The main weapons of American fighters during World War II were 12.7 mm machine guns, which were ineffective even against light armored vehicles. 20mm cannons were rarely installed, and in terms of their armor penetration characteristics, they differed little from large-caliber machine guns. However, in the pre-war period, American designers experimented with larger-caliber aircraft guns, and a number of combat aircraft with 37-75-mm guns were created in the United States, but their main purpose was not to combat armored vehicles.
Thus, the P-39D Airacobra fighter was armed with a 37-mm M4 cannon with 30 rounds of ammunition. The gun weighing 97 kg had a rate of fire of 150 rds / min. The ammunition load of fighters, as a rule, included fragmentation shells. An armor-piercing projectile weighing 750 g left the barrel with an initial speed of 610 m / s and could penetrate 25 mm armor at a distance of 400 m. But the Aerocobr pilots used guns mainly in air battles, and only occasionally for shelling ground targets.
A 75 mm M5 cannon with manual loading, weighing 408 kg, was installed on B-25G Mitchell bombers. An armor-piercing projectile weighing 6, 3 kg with an initial speed of 619 m / s at a distance of 300 m along the normal pierced 80 mm homogeneous armor. A gun with such armor penetration could confidently hit PzKpfw IV medium tanks.
But taking into account the fact that during the attack, due to the extremely low rate of fire, one could be fired at the tank at a real distance of the battle, at most two shots, the probability of defeat was very low. They tried to increase the accuracy by targeting tracer bullets from 12, 7-mm machine guns, but the effectiveness of firing at small targets remained small. In this regard, the "Mitchells", armed with 75-mm guns, were used mainly in the Pacific against Japanese ships of small and medium displacement. When attacking large sea convoys, the B-25G effectively suppressed anti-aircraft fire. When opening fire from a distance of 1500 m, the crew of the assault Mitchell managed to produce 3-4 aimed shots at a destroyer-class ship.
In early 1942, the designers of the American company North American began to create a dive bomber based on the P-51 Mustang fighter. The British were the first to use the Mustangs in February 1942 in battle. The fighter, known as the Mustang I, proved to be very easy to fly and highly maneuverable. However, the Allison V-1710-39 engine installed on the first Mustangs "had a significant drawback - after climbing over 4000 meters, it rapidly lost power. This significantly reduced the combat value of the aircraft, while the British needed fighters that could withstand the Luftwaffe at medium and high altitudes. Therefore, the entire batch of American-made fighters was transferred to the tactical aviation units, which were subordinate to the Tactical Command for interaction with army units, and there was no need for high altitude. British pilots flying the Mustang I were mainly engaged in low-altitude photographic reconnaissance, free hunting on railways and highways, and attacked pinpoint ground targets along the coast. Later, their missions included the interception of single German aircraft trying at low altitude, out of sight of British radars, to break through and strike at targets in Great Britain. Taking into account the success of the Mustang I low-altitude fighters, in April 1942, North American was ordered to create a purely strike aircraft that could drop dive bombs. A total of 500 aircraft were supposed to be built. The strike version of the "Mustang" received the designation A-36A and the proper name Apache.
The A-36A was equipped with an Allison 1710-87 engine with a capacity of 1325 hp, which made it possible to develop a speed in horizontal flight of 587 km / h. The aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of 4535 kg had a flight range of 885 km. The built-in armament consisted of six 12.7 mm machine guns. The combat load initially consisted of two 227 kg (500-pound) bombs; later, napalm incendiary tanks were suspended from the dive bomber.
Since the "Mustang" from the very beginning possessed excellent aerodynamics, the aircraft developed a high speed in a dive, which was not necessary for a dive bomber. To reduce the maximum dive speed, perforated brake flaps were installed on the aircraft, reducing the speed to 627 km / h.
The first A-36A in June 1942 entered service with the 27th light bomber group and the 86th group of dive bombers operating in Italy. In July, bombing groups began their first combat missions, attacking targets in Sicily. After a month of combat use, the pilots of the two groups made more than 1000 sorties. In August 1943, both groups were renamed fighter-bomber. American dive bombers have had a significant impact on the course of hostilities in Italy. Due to the inadequate bomb armament against tanks deployed in battle formations, the Apaches were ineffective, but they operated very successfully in places of accumulation of armored vehicles and transport convoys. The main role of the A-36A in the fight against tanks was to destroy bridges and destroy mountain roads, which made the terrain impassable for armored vehicles and made it difficult to supply fuel and ammunition to German tank units. In mid-September 1943, the A-36A and P-38 fighter-bombers provided almost decisive assistance to the units of the 5th US Army in the Apennines, which were in a very difficult situation. Thanks to a series of successful attacks on the concentration points of enemy forces, bridges and communications, the offensive impulse of the German troops was stopped.
Initially, the Apache's main combat technique was dive bombing. Usually, sorties were made as part of a group of 4-6 aircraft, which alternately dived at the target from an altitude of 1200-1500 m, while the bombing accuracy was quite high. After dropping bombs, the target was often fired at from machine guns, thus making 2-3 combat approaches. It was believed that the guarantee of the Apache's invulnerability was their high speed, but with such tactics the anti-aircraft gunners managed to react and take aim, and the losses of the dive bombers were very significant. In addition, when diving at high speed, the aircraft very often became unstable, which was associated with abnormal operation of the aerodynamic brakes.
To reduce losses, it was decided to drop all bombs in one pass, and to increase stability, bombing was carried out from a flatter dive angle and from a greater height. This made it possible to reduce losses, but the accuracy of bombing dropped significantly. The combat effectiveness of the A-36A against tanks could be significantly higher using incendiary napalm tanks. But incendiary tanks with A-36A were used mainly against the Japanese, in the jungles of Burma.
In total, Apaches flew 23,373 sorties in the Mediterranean and Far Eastern theaters of operations, during which more than 8,000 tons of bombs were dropped. In air battles, the A-36A destroyed 84 enemy aircraft. Own losses amounted to 177 units. Most of the shot down Mustangs were on anti-aircraft guns of 20-37-mm caliber during repeated approaches to the target. The combat career of the A-36A actually ended in the first half of 1944, when the more advanced American fighters P-51D Mustang, P-47 Thunderbolt, as well as the British Typhoon and Tempest began to enter the combat squadrons en masse.
The main anti-tank weapons of British and American fighter-bombers were rockets. The first British unguided aircraft RP-3 missiles were created on the basis of 76, 2-mm anti-aircraft missiles. The British 3-inch anti-aircraft missile was a simple tubular structure with stabilizers, the engine used a 5 kg charge of SCRK cordite. The first aircraft missiles were tested on the Hurricanes and Beaufighters.
Initially, 87.3 mm (3.44 in) steel blank missiles were intended to deal with German submarines that surfaced and were at periscope depth. On tests, it turned out that a monolithic steel warhead weighing 11, 35 kg at a distance of 700 meters is capable of piercing a 3-inch steel plate. This was more than enough to break through the submarine's solid hull and made it possible to confidently fight medium tanks. The aiming range of the launch was limited to 1000 meters, the maximum flight speed of the rocket was 440 m / s. There is also information about the creation of an 87, 3-mm rocket, the warhead of which contained a carbide core. But whether they were used in hostilities, information could not be found.
In June 1942, armor-piercing rockets began to be actively used by British fighter-bombers in North Africa. According to the reports of British pilots, with a salvo launch of missiles at a single tank, it was possible to achieve hits in 5% of cases. The result, of course, was not high, but in any case, the effectiveness of the missiles was higher than when firing from 20-mm cannons. Due to the low accuracy, when it was possible, the NAR tried to carry out the launches at the places of accumulation and columns of armored vehicles.
For use against "not solid" targets, a high-explosive fragmentation 114-mm (4.5 inches), warhead weighing 21, 31 kg, containing 1.36 kg of TNT-RDX alloy was created. It is worth saying that a single "undercarriage" with stabilizers and a main engine equipped with cordite was used for the family of British aircraft missiles. The missiles themselves and screwed-on warheads were supplied to the airfields of fighter-bombers separately, and could be completed depending on the specific combat mission.
Rockets with high-explosive fragmentation warheads turned out to be effective not only against trains, transport convoys, anti-aircraft batteries and other area targets. In a number of cases, with their help, it was possible to successfully fight against German armored vehicles. An explosion of 1.36 kg of powerful explosives enclosed in a strong case 4 mm thick, in the event of a direct hit, was enough to break through 30-35 mm armor. In this case, not only armored personnel carriers, but also medium German tanks were vulnerable. The armor of heavy tanks did not penetrate with these missiles, but the NAR hit, as a rule, did not pass without a trace. Even if the armor could withstand, then observation devices and sights often suffered, attachments were swept away, the tower was jammed, the gun and chassis were damaged. In most cases, tanks hit by high-explosive fragmentation NARs lost their combat effectiveness.
There was also a rocket with a 114-mm warhead equipped with white phosphorus. Attempts to use incendiary missiles against armored vehicles turned out to be ineffective in most cases - when it hit the armor, white phosphorus burned out without causing any particular damage to combat vehicles. Incendiary shells were threatened by trucks or armored personnel carriers, tractors, and tanks with open hatches open on top while loading ammunition or refueling. In March 1945, missiles with improved accuracy and cumulative warheads appeared, but the British did not really have time to use them in battle.
In the second half of 1942, it became known about the appearance of heavy tanks in Germany, after which the question arose of creating missiles capable of penetrating their armor. In 1943, a new version of the missile with a 152-mm armor-piercing high-explosive warhead (semi-armor-piercing in British terminology - Semi Armor Piercing) was adopted. The warhead weighing 27.3 kg with a strong armor-piercing tip contained 5.45 kg of explosives, was capable of penetrating 200 mm of armor and had a good fragmentation effect. At a distance of 3 meters, heavy shrapnel pierced a 12 mm armor plate. Due to the fact that the rocket engine remained the same, and the mass and drag increased significantly, the maximum flight speed of the rocket dropped to 350 m / s. In this regard, there was a slight drop in the launch range and the accuracy of shooting deteriorated, which was partly offset by the increased striking effect.
According to British data, 152-mm missiles confidently hit heavy tanks Pz. Kpfw. VI Ausf. H1. However, the British pilots tried to attack the "Tigers" and "Panthers" on board or from the stern, which indirectly indicates that the frontal armor of German heavy tanks could not always be penetrated due to the likelihood of a ricochet. If, as a result of a direct hit, no penetration occurred, then the tank, as a rule, still received heavy damage, the crew and internal units were often struck by internal chipping of the armor.
Thanks to a powerful warhead, at a close gap, the chassis was destroyed, optics and weapons were knocked out. It is believed that the cause of the death of Michael Wittmann, one of the most famous German tank aces, was the hit in the stern of his Tiger by a missile from the British Typhoon fighter-bomber. Heavy 152-mm missiles were also successfully used against German ships, trains, military columns and artillery positions. There are cases when small bridges were destroyed by a rocket salvo, which prevented the advance of German tanks.
By the end of 1942, aircraft missiles were being produced in large numbers. British NARs were very primitive and did not differ in high accuracy, but their advantages were high reliability and low production costs.
After the Typhoon fighters were attracted to strikes against ground targets, missiles took a firm place in their arsenal. The standard option was to install eight rails, four under each wing. Hawker's Typhoon fighter-bombers made their first sorties against ground targets in November 1942. Although the Typhoon was not equipped with powerful armor protection, it proved to be quite tenacious. Its success as a fighter-bomber was facilitated by good controllability at low altitudes and powerful armament: four 20-mm cannons, eight NARs or two 1000-pound (454 kg) bombs. The practical flight range with missiles was 740 km. The maximum speed without external suspensions at the ground is 663 km / h.
By the end of 1943, out of 18 Typhoon aviation units capable of carrying missiles, they formed the Second Tactical Command of the RAF, the main task of which was direct air support of ground forces, the fight against enemy fortifications and armored vehicles.
After the Allied landings in Normandy, the Typhoons hunted freely in the close German rear or patrolled near the front line at an altitude of about 3000 m. Having received the command of the air controller by radio, they attacked armored vehicles, firing points or artillery and mortar positions on the battlefield. In this case, the target, whenever possible, was "marked" with smoke projectiles or signal flares.
With the opening of the "Second Front" one of the main tasks of the British fighter-bombers became actions on enemy lines of communication. Fighting columns of German tanks moving along the narrow roads of France was much easier than then exterminating them one by one on the battlefield. Often, when striking with large forces, the British attack aircraft operated in a mixed composition. Some of the planes carried missiles, and some bombs. Fighter-bombers with missiles were the first to attack. They stopped the column by striking its head and suppressed anti-aircraft resistance.
In 1944, in the RAF tactical strike squadrons, Typhoons began to be replaced by more advanced Tempests. But the combat use of "Typhoons" continued until the end of hostilities. In turn, the Hawker Tempest was a further development of the Typhoon. The aircraft's maximum speed increased to 702 km / h. The altitude characteristics have noticeably increased, and the practical range has reached 1190 km. The armament remained the same as on the Typhoon, but the ammunition load for four 20-mm cannons increased to 800 rounds (on the Typhoon there were 140 rounds per gun).
Considering the experience of using the "anti-tank attack aircraft" Hurricane IID, the Tempest Mk. V tried to install 47-mm Class P cannons manufactured by Vickers. The gun had a belt feed, its weight with 30 rounds of ammunition was 280 kg. Rate of fire - 70 rds / min.
According to the design data, an armor-piercing projectile weighing 2.07 kg, fired at a speed of 808 m / s, was supposed to penetrate 75 mm of armor. When using a tungsten core in the projectile, the armor penetration value was supposed to be increased to 100 mm. However, at the final stage of the war, there was no particular need for aircraft with such weapons. It is known about the construction of one "Tempest" with 47-mm cannons.
Due to the fact that the flight data of "Tempest" made it possible to perform the entire range of tasks and successfully conduct an air battle with any German serial piston fighter, the use of this machine in comparison with the "Typhoon" was more multifaceted. Nevertheless, "Tempests" were widely used to combat armored vehicles and close air support. By the beginning of 1945, there were about 700 Tempests in combat squadrons. About a third of them participated in striking ground targets.
It is quite difficult to assess the effectiveness of the actions of British fighter-bombers against tanks. 152-mm heavy missiles are guaranteed to destroy or incapacitate any German tank or self-propelled gun in the event of a hit. But the effectiveness of the use of missiles directly depended on the qualifications and experience of the pilot. Usually, during the attack, British attack aircraft dived at the target at an angle of up to 45 degrees. The steeper the dive angle was, the greater the accuracy of the launch of heavy NARs turned out to be. After the target hit the reticle, just before the launch, it was required to slightly raise the nose of the aircraft in order to take into account the downward drawdown of the missiles. For inexperienced pilots, a recommendation was issued to zero in with tracer shells before launching missiles. It was very common for British pilots to significantly overestimate their achievements in the fight against German armored vehicles. So, on August 7, 1944, Typhoon fighter-bombers during the day attacked German tank units advancing towards Normandy. According to pilot reports, they destroyed 84 and damaged 56 tanks. However, later the British command found out that only 12 tanks and self-propelled guns were damaged and destroyed by missiles. However, in addition to missiles, attack aircraft also dropped 113 and 227 kg of aerial bombs and fired at targets from cannons. Also among the burned out and wrecked tanks there were many armored personnel carriers and tracked tractors, which in the heat of battle could be mistaken for tanks or self-propelled guns.
But in any case, the success of the Typhoon pilots was overstated several times. Practice has shown that in reality the high declared results of fighter-bombers should be treated with great caution. It was very common for the pilots not only to overestimate their own successes, but also the number of German tanks on the battlefield. According to the results of several detailed investigations conducted in order to find out the real combat effectiveness of Typhoons and Tempests, it was found that real achievements did not exceed, at best, 10% of the declared number of enemy tanks defeated.
Unlike the Royal Air Force, the United States Air Force did not have squadrons specializing primarily in the hunt for German armored vehicles. American "Mustangs" and "Thunderbolts", attracted for strikes against ground targets, acted at the request of ground aircraft controllers or were engaged in "free hunting" in the near German rear or on communications. However, on American warplanes, rockets were suspended even more often than in the British Air Force. The most common American NAR shells were the M8 family - they were produced in millions of copies and were widely used in all theaters of war. To launch the NAR M8, tubular launchers with a length of about 3 m were used, made of plastic (weight 36 kg), magnesium alloy (39 kg) or steel (86 kg). In addition to the mass, the launch tubes were distinguished by their resource. The lightest, cheapest and most common plastic PU M10 had the lowest resource. The launch tubes were grouped in a bundle of three under each wing of the fighter.
The design of the NAR M8 for its time was quite advanced in comparison with the British RP-3 family of missiles - it is a much more advanced rocket, characterized by a reduced frontal resistance of launchers, good weight perfection and better firing accuracy. This was achieved due to the successful layout and the use of spring-loaded stabilizers, which opened when the missile exited the launcher.
The 114 mm (4.5 in) M8 rocket had a mass of 17.6 kg and a length of 911 mm. The engine, containing 2, 16 kg of solid fuel, accelerated the rocket to 260 m / s. In practice, the carrier's flight speed was added to the rocket's own speed. The high-explosive warhead contained 1.9 kg of TNT. In the event of a direct hit from a missile with a high-explosive warhead, it broke through 25 mm of armor. There was also an armor-piercing modification with a steel blank, which, with a direct hit, could penetrate 45 mm armor, but such missiles were rarely used. The combat use of M8 missiles began in the spring of 1943. At first, the P-40 Tomahawk fighter was the carrier of the M8 missiles, but later these NARs became very widespread and were used on single-engine and twin-engine American combat aircraft.
At the end of 1943, the improved M8A2 model went into production, and then the A3. On missiles of new versions, in order to improve stability on the trajectory, the area of folding stabilizers was increased, and the mass of explosives in the warhead increased to 2.1 kg. Thanks to the use of a new powder formulation, the thrust of the main rocket engine was increased, which in turn had a beneficial effect on the accuracy and firing range. In total, before the beginning of 1945, more than 2.5 million missiles of the M8 family were produced. The scale of the combat use of the NAR M8 in the US Air Force is evidenced by the fact that the P-47 Thunderbolt fighters of the 12th Air Army spent up to 1000 missiles daily during the battles in Italy.
Later modifications of the M8 had good firing accuracy, surpassing British missiles in this indicator by about 2 times. But when operating on heavy armored vehicles and pillboxes, the destructive power of their warhead was not always enough. In this regard, in 1944, the 127-mm NAR 5HVAR (High Velocity Aircraft Rocket), created on the basis of 3, 5 FFAR and 5 FFAR missiles, used in naval aviation, entered production. In the aviation units, she received the informal name "Holy Moses" ("Holy Moses").
Due to the use of rocket fuel of a complex composition with a high specific impulse, consisting of: 51.5% nitrocellulose, 43% nitroglycerin, 3.25% diethyl phthalate, 1.25% potassium sulfate, 1% ethylcentralite and 0.2% soot, the maximum flight speed of the rocket managed to bring it up to 420 m / s, without taking into account the speed of the carrier aircraft. Sighting range for point targets was 1000 m, for area targets - up to 2000 m. The missile weighing 61 kg carried 20.6 kg warhead, which was loaded with 3.4 kg of Comp B explosives - a mixture of TNT and RDX. On tests with 5-inch missiles, it was possible to break through 57 mm of ship's cemented armor. In the immediate vicinity of the explosion point, shrapnel could pierce armor with a thickness of 12-15 mm. For the 127-mm NAR, they also created a solid armor-piercing warhead with a carbide tip, despite the fact that such a missile was capable of penetrating the Tiger's frontal part, it was not popular with the flight crew.
In terms of its service, operational and combat characteristics, the 127-mm 5HVAR has become the most advanced type of unguided aircraft missiles used by the Americans during the Second World War. Despite the fact that this rocket used awkward cruciform stabilizers, it was not inferior to the M8 in launch accuracy. The damaging effect of 127-mm missiles was quite sufficient. When hitting directly on heavy and medium tanks, they were usually disabled. In the post-war period, unguided air missiles 5HVAR became widespread, in a number of countries they remained in service until the early 90s and were used in many local conflicts.
In the part devoted to the anti-tank capabilities of the Allied aviation, it is no coincidence that so much attention is paid to aviation unguided missiles, since they were the main means of combating German armored vehicles. However, bombs were often used against tanks, including on the battlefield. Since the Americans and the British did not have anything like the Soviet PTAB, they were forced to use 113, 227 and even 454 kg bombs against single enemy tanks. At the same time, in order to avoid being hit by fragments of their own bombs, it was necessary to strictly limit the minimum drop height or use deceleration fuses, which naturally negatively affected the accuracy of bombing. Also from the middle of 1944 in Europe, 625 liter napalm tanks began to be suspended on single-engine attack aircraft, but they were used relatively rarely.
In the comments to the second part of the cycle, devoted to the combat effectiveness of Soviet attack aircraft, a number of site visitors emphasize the "worthlessness" of the IL-2. It is believed that the aircraft, which is similar in its characteristics to the P-47, would be a more effective attack aircraft on the Eastern Front than the armored Ilys. At the same time, the participants in the discussion forget about the circumstances in which the Soviet and American aviation had to fight. It is completely incorrect to compare the conditions and aviation equipment of the Western and Eastern fronts. At least until mid-1943, our combat aviation did not have air supremacy, and attack aircraft constantly faced the most severe anti-aircraft opposition from the Germans. By the time the Allies landed in Normandy, the main flight personnel of the Germans were ground on the Eastern Front or defended the skies of Germany from the devastating raids of heavy bombers. Even with fighters in the Luftwaffe, they often could not take off due to a chronic shortage of aviation gasoline. And the anti-aircraft artillery of the Germans on the Western Front in 1944 was not at all the same as, say, in 1942 in the East. It is not surprising that under these conditions unarmored Typhoons, Tempests, Thunderbolts and Mustangs dominated the battlefield and pirated in the enemy's near rear. Here, the Thunderbolt's large combat load (P-47D - 1134 kg) and a huge flight range by fighter standards - 1400 km without PTB came in handy.
The P-47 managed to bring to mind the power plant, "lick" the structure and eliminate the "childhood sores" only by the end of 1943 - a few months before the opening of the "Second Front". After that, the "Flying Jugs" became the main striking force of air support for the ground forces of the US Army on the battlefield. This was facilitated not only by the large combat radius and the respectable combat load, but also by the tenacious air-cooled engine, covering the pilot from the front. However, the more maneuverable and high-speed "Mustangs" also often worked along the front edge and operated on communications.
A typical tactic of American fighter-bombers was a surprise attack from a gentle dive. At the same time, when operating on columns, railway junctions, artillery positions and other targets behind the line of the German defense, repeated combat approaches in order to avoid losses from anti-aircraft fire, as a rule, were not carried out. American pilots, providing close air support to their units, also tried to deliver "lightning strikes", after which they carried out their escape at low altitude. Thus, they did not "iron out" the target, making several attacks, like the Il-2, and, accordingly, the losses of American attack aircraft from small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery were minimal. But even with such tactics, taking into account the total superiority of the allies in the air and the number of fighter-bombers flying daily on combat missions, for the Germans in the daytime, in flying weather, any movement on the roads in the front line was impossible. Any armored vehicles found were also subjected to continuous airstrikes.
This had an extremely demoralizing effect on the morale of the German soldiers. Even veterans who fought in North Africa and on the Eastern Front were afraid of Anglo-American air raids. As the Germans themselves said, on the Western Front they developed a "German view" - without exception, all German soldiers who had been on the Western Front for several days, even far from the front line, constantly looked at the sky with alarm. A survey of German prisoners of war confirmed the tremendous psychological effect of air attacks, especially rocket attacks, even tank crews consisting of veterans were exposed to it. Often, tankers abandoned their combat vehicles, only noticing the approaching attack aircraft.
Colonel Wilson Collins, commander of the 3rd Tank Battalion, 67th Tank Regiment, wrote about this in his report:
Direct air support greatly assisted our offensive. I've seen fighter pilots work. Acting from low altitudes, with rockets and bombs, they cleared the way for us in the breakthrough at Saint-Lo. The aviators thwarted a German tank counterattack on the Barman, which we had recently captured, on the western bank of the Rør. This section of the front was completely controlled by Thunderbolt fighter-bombers. Rarely were German units able to engage with us without being hit by them. I once saw the Panther crew abandon their car after a fighter fired machine guns at their tank. Obviously, the Germans decided that on the next call they would drop bombs or launch missiles.
In general, the effectiveness of air attacks against tanks by the pilots of the Mustangs and Thunderbolts was about the same as in the British aviation. So, in the ideal conditions of the test site, it was possible to achieve five direct hits into the stationary captured PzKpfw V tank when launching 64 NAR M8. The accuracy of the missiles was no better on the battlefield. So, when examining the knocked out and destroyed German armored vehicles at the site of the battles in the Ardennes, only 6 tanks and self-propelled guns were hit by missiles, although the pilots claimed that they managed to hit 66 armored vehicles. In a missile attack on a tank column of about fifty tanks, on a highway in the vicinity of La Balaine in France, 17 units were declared destroyed. During the survey of the site of the airstrike, only 9 tanks were found on the spot, and only two of them could not be restored.
Thus, it can be stated that the Allied fighter-bombers in their effectiveness were in no way superior to the Soviet Il-2 armored attack aircraft. However, literally all Allied combat aircraft flying in the daytime acted against armored vehicles. There are many known cases when dozens of B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers were involved in the bombing of German tank units. Given that the Americans had air superiority in 1944 and a huge number of bombers at their disposal, they could afford to use strategic bomber aircraft to perform tactical tasks. Of course, it is a stretch to consider four-engine bombers dropping 227, 454 and 908 kg bombs as an adequate anti-tank weapon, but here the theory of probability and the "magic of large numbers" come into play. If hundreds of heavy bombs fall from a height of several kilometers onto a territory limited in area, they inevitably cover someone. After such air raids, even the surviving crews on serviceable tanks, due to the strongest moral shock, often lost their combat effectiveness.
In France, the Netherlands and Belgium, the allies avoided massive bombing of populated areas, but after the hostilities spread to Germany, the tanks could no longer hide among residential areas.
Despite the fact that the American and British aviation weapons did not have sufficiently effective anti-tank weapons in their arsenal, they managed to successfully hinder the actions of German tank units, depriving them of the supply of fuel and ammunition. After the Allies landed in Normandy, the enemy's railway network was completely destroyed and the German armored vehicles, accompanying them with trucks with shells and supplies, fuel trucks, infantry and artillery were forced to make long marches on the roads, while being exposed to continuous exposure to aviation. After the liberation of France, many commanders of the allied units complained that the narrow roads leading to Normandy in 1944 were blocked by broken and broken German equipment, and it was very difficult to move along them. As a result, a significant part of the German tanks simply did not get to the front line, and those who did get there were left without fuel and ammunition. According to the recollections of the surviving German tankers who fought in the West, they were often forced to abandon, without the possibility of timely repair, not only equipment that received minor combat damage or had minor breakdowns, but also absolutely serviceable tanks with dry fuel tanks.
