![]() ![]() Now lets talk about the Luftwaffe and the VVS(Soviet Air Force) over Kursk. There is some skepticism towards these histories as they do not accurately describe what happened to the tanks lost to aircraft or the high number of tanks found abandoned. German divisional histories emphasized the role of fighter-bombers in engagements(even if they did no significant damage). German crews claimed to be terrified of Typhoons and P-47s and would bail-out at the first sign of an aircraft attack. The psychological impact on fighter-bombers on German tanks seemed to be quite high as well. can not be ignored in indirectly destroying German armor. Taking out fuel trucks, infantry, depots, etc. Aircraft were particularly good at destroying motor transports and disrupted the logistics of the Germans. Now the fighter-bombers did take their toll on German armor. As this has shown, these claims about tanks getting decimated by aircraft doesn’t really hold any water. Things didn’t go much better in the Ardennes with air units claiming 66 tanks in an area which under inspection was found that only 1 of 101 tanks were knocked out by air and another 6 likely knocked out by air. The number of tanks lost to aircraft seemed to be 15 in the Falaise area or 4% of the original claim. ![]() At the Falaise Gap the Fighter-Bombers claimed 3x more tanks(391) than the Germans actually lost(133). The actual number of destroyed AFVs in the area is close to 45 tanks, only 9 seemed to be victims of airstrikes or 7% of the original claim. Around Mortain the US and British pilots claimed to have destroyed/probably destroyed a total of 120 tanks. 2 ORS investigated the area and found that there was a total of 9 tanks, 2 of which were actually destroyed by rockets or just 11% of the original claim. ![]() The pilots claimed to have KO’d 17 of the tanks. Near La Baleine, France Typhoons conducted 99 sorties on a German Armored Column consisting of ~50 tanks. Some documented cases show that these claims are horribly exaggerated. Now, regardless that aircraft weaponry was near useless against tanks, the RaF and USAAC both claimed hundreds of panzers. It had been concluded that overall it took 800 rockets or 3500 bombs to hit a tank sized target in battle conditions. In real combat the Panzers would have some some camouflage, some flak protection(which downed hundreds of Allied fighter-bombers over NW Europe and greatly reduced accuracy of bombs and rockets), and crews that would know to seek cover when they realize they are being shot at. Bombs were even worse in regards to accuracy. A total of 3 hits were recorded giving the rockets a 4.69% accuracy rating in the most perfect of circumstances. A trial conducted by the RAF had fired 64 rockets from 4 Tiffies(2 flights) at a stationary Panther painted white. Both bombs and rockets were utterly abysmal in terms of accuracy. However that is the problem they had to hit their target. Both of these were much more devastating when they hit armor. These aircraft also carried rockets and bombs. Also how do you tell if what you’re shooting at is a Tiger and not a half-track? *Hitting those external fuel tanks didn’t KO tanks, but it did make them run out of fuel faster. armor-piercing bullets penetrate the underside of vehicles after ricocheting off the road. It has been claimed that P-47 pilots would have the. 50 cals of the P-47 and other American aircraft do not have legitimate chance of killing a panzer. ![]() It is likely that some panzers were disabled by 20 mm fire, but just a handful. Even the weak roof armor was near impenetrable due to the angle of attack and range. The 20 mm cannon of the Typhoon did not have the ability to punch through German armor. The weapons employed by these aircraft are just not good at knocking out tanks. The problem is that this just isn’t true. CAS pilots claimed hundreds of panzers dead due to their bombs, rockets, and cannons. In NW Europe the Typhoon and the P-47 are regarded as an effective weapon against German Armor. I will also quickly go over examples from the Eastern Front. I will focus my attention on the AT abilities of the Hawker Typhoon and the P-47 Thunderbolt against German armor. I know some of you don’t think this, but I think a good portion of you might. A popular misconception I have noticed is that ground attack aircraft were used successfully as “tank-busters” of “tank-killers”, and that aircraft were seemingly the largest threat to tanks. ![]()
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