Is the he-111 a wolf or sheep?

Does upgrading the weapons of the he-111 to cannon really help any when fighting off fighters?

What do you guys think ? are you ever worried when attacking the he-111?

For me when there is a lone 111 i’m not that concerned, however, if there is a formation I usually sustain alot of damage.

3 Likes

A lone B-17 was not the threat that dozens or hundreds of B-17 posed. Makes sense that a single He-11 or multiple He-11’s in the same type of situation would be of a similar risk.

Wheels

1 Like

Also depending on what you’re going after it with, you usually don’t have an armament designed for taking down bombers. Yes 8 .50’s will do some work, and 8 .303’s will shred an engine. Neither will have near the effect as 20mm and 30mm shells. This means you need a longer time on the attack path guns firing to have the same effect. If you are in a Spit/Hurricane/Mustang/etc (anything with an inline liquid cooled engine) you don’t really have a lot of durability to handle hits to the front of the aircraft. Radials like the P-47 are more durable, and you might find more success.

As @wheelsup_cavu mentioned a formation of bombers makes life tricky. Use the same taffics the Luftwaffe used and you’ll probably see reasonable success.

1 Like

I never thought about that with the different engines.

Seems the germans had more cannons fitted early on. Do you think that is because they faced more bombers? or did that always have cannons ?

1 Like

Try it with a P-47, and try it with a Mustang. They both work, but one is a lot more likely to get you home every time.

I believe the Germans had added the cannon’s following the Spanish Civil War based on lessons learned about the effectiveness of machine guns at shooting to aircraft. It was one the British didn’t learn until after the BOB.

3 Likes