Girandoni air rifle

phillies wrote:How would the rockets be different from explosive shells?

They wouldn't hit anything.

Are 50 calibre gatlings of some merit in warfare?

During WW2 Pacific there was a Marine Air unit, or so I am told, that took some number of aircraft used in ground attach roles and tested how many machine guns they could mount on one, with the aircraft still able to perform its mission. The answer was "lots". They were used to attack Japanese surface ships, freighters and on at least one occasion a destroyed, with or so I was told dramatic results. The incoming small rounds wiped out deck crew, folks manning the unarmored AA guns, bridge crew and bridge, and set lots of fires.

Against wooden ships and ships using sails, there is considerable merit.

saber964 wrote:

phillies wrote:How would the rockets be different from explosive shells?

They wouldn't hit anything.

Are 50 calibre gatlings of some merit in warfare?

During WW2 Pacific there was a Marine Air unit, or so I am told, that took some number of aircraft used in ground attach roles and tested how many machine guns they could mount on one, with the aircraft still able to perform its mission. The answer was "lots". They were used to attack Japanese surface ships, freighters and on at least one occasion a destroyed, with or so I was told dramatic results. The incoming small rounds wiped out deck crew, folks manning the unarmored AA guns, bridge crew and bridge, and set lots of fires.

Against wooden ships and ships using sails, there is considerable merit.

You're talking about the Far East Strafer. It was originally a field modified B-25C with upwards of 12 50 cal machine guns firing forward it was later put into production as the B-25H(?). Some of the aircraft were also equipped with a 75mm howitzer. They also modified PBY Catalina's known as Black Cats with 6 50 cal the gunner actually sat on a saddle of asbestos over gun barrels to fire the guns. An example of how these planes fought read up on the battle of the Bismarck Sea.

lyonheart wrote:Hi Weird Harold,

snip

Since HEAT warheads depend on the Monroe effect, which hasn't been discovered yet on Safehold according to the textev, they're not an option against the screw galleys.

snip

lyonheart wrote:Hi Saber964,

It was a 75mm cannon that was mounted in the B-25G and H, not the 75mm howitzer which fired a much lighter, rather lower velocity shell that would have been quite inadequate.

While I'm familiar with the 'Black Cats', using 6 .50's as a gunship in something so slow seems counter indicated.

L


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DDHvi wrote:

lyonheart wrote:Hi Weird Harold,

snip

Since HEAT warheads depend on the Monroe effect, which hasn't been discovered yet on Safehold according to the textev, they're not an option against the screw galleys.

snip

Is the Monroe effect that item where an explosive charge with an internal forward facing cone lined with metal produces an extremely high velocity squirt of metal on explosion? If not, please give a short exposition.

AirTech wrote:

lyonheart wrote:Hi Saber964,

It was a 75mm cannon that was mounted in the B-25G and H, not the 75mm howitzer which fired a much lighter, rather lower velocity shell that would have been quite inadequate.

While I'm familiar with the 'Black Cats', using 6 .50's as a gunship in something so slow seems counter indicated.

L


[

The 75mm round had the advantage of being fired from a platform moving at 3OO kts - adding 500 feet per second to the muzzle velocity (or 25% on the standard land based gun). The original gun was the 75mm M3 tank gun but was down sized due to blast damage to the aircraft.

The Black Cats advantage was their range - they popped up thousands of miles behind the Japanese front lines to attack shipping. (And were originally based on lakes in southern Australia, flown 4000 miles to forward bases, and refueled for a strike and then reversed the process on the way back). 36 hour unrefueled missions were common. The Qantas Cats flew 32 hour passenger operations on a weekly basis (Perth to Kogala).

peke wrote:I read somewhere (can't remember where exactly) that the shaped-charge effect was discovered by accident, like this: someone was doing some testing with explosive charges and armor plate, and the explosive charge in question had been accidentally pressed against a series of numbers in relief, so the metal-facing charge surface had letter-sized indentations. When the charge blew and the smoke cleared, the someone in question was surprised to discover that the plate was largely intact, but that the numbers had become gouged in the plate.

Is there any truth to this? Because I can totally see someone in Howswym's explosive shop accidentally doing something like this (or maybe set up to accidentally "discover" it)