P-47 Thunderbolt Pt. 7 Firepower, A Lot of Firepower.

In this episode we cover the P-47 weapons, The 50 caliber machine guns, bombs, rockets, and more. There are comparisons with other air to air weapons, and we get into gun convergence and more.
Cannons vs. Machine guns, Fuselage vs. Wing Mounted, it's all covered in this video.
Notes: I made a comment about "average" soldiers, airmen, and sailors and said that they are the ones who win the war. I feel that needs further explanation. We all know that there were top fighter pilots, tank crews and so on who performed incredibly, and they certainly made a difference. However from the point of view of an equipment designer, whether is be a fighter plane, a rifle, or a tank, it has to perform well in the hands of an average soldier or it likely won't be a war winning weapon.
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[@organicdudranch]

My friend wally groce flew one in ww2 . when it first came out he said everyone was afraid to fly it. he said it did not fly well at all at low speeds, but when you held it open it was his favorite plane. he shot down a ME 262 . did you know it had cameras ? he has a photo of the shot that took it down. he said his wingman strafed a long train with the 8-50's he said the power was so much it slowed the plane down , and knocked the train over. just the force of 8 -50's did that. wally died a few years ago, he was a fine man all the way. you can google him.

[@johnivkovich8655]

I have so much respect for Greg that when he mistakenly said 'kits', I changed my understanding of the English language before he corrected to 'kills'.

[@Bluegumtiger]

Adolf Galland said that a gun in the nose was worth two in the wings but given a choice, he would prefer to have both.

[@johndonovan758]

Twenty seconds in, and all you need to show is that clip of spent shells falling like macaroni out of a box. That conveys what we're dealing with in a way statistics never can.

[@neoconshooter]

Since my last post, I found a small bit of USAF weapons history that you might find interesting? In Korea, the Average range of effective fire, IE the target gets shot down, was 750 Yards with the six fifties that most of our planes carried. We shot down a lot of MiG-15s! The Brits used four 20s in their jets, but were much less effective if you divide kills by missions. After much study, the USAF found that RoF, MV and BC were much more important that weight of fire! We reduced the weight of our 20 MM shell buy 28%, increased MV to 1,036 M/S, made it much more pointed and increased the rate of fire to ~6,000 rounds per minute! Either four M-39 revolver guns at 1,500 rounds per minute, per gun in the F-86H tested in Korea to good effect. Or the six barreled Vulcan gun. In every case, they found the more pointed shell at much higher M/V and at higher rates of fire was very much more effective than the much larger and more powerful Russian guns in the MiGs! This was born out to the Present day in encounters in the middle east between older MiGs and our newer jets! They miss more and while the individual damage might be worse, it was not enough to knock the plane down. But flying threw the Vulcan gun's bullet hose killed everything! For the F-22, they went so far as to test reducing the weight of the shell to 84 grams and lengthen the barrel to increase the MV to 1,525 M/S! Only logistical reasons why they did not adopt this.

[@paulbriggs3072]

A 1950's car has a heavier, stronger, skin than most WWII aircraft. If anyone saw what a single 50 caliber machine gun can do to a 50's car, they would not doubt what eight could do to an airplane.

[@Robert-ff9wf]

I have never heard an American ww2 pilot complain about only having 50 caliber guns on their aircraft. As a matter of fact they seemed quite happy with them and from what I can tell by looking at gun camera footage seemed to be very effective weather against other aircraft or ground targets and they seemed very reliable.

[@PappyGunn]

To support your argument: During the bombing campaign in Yougoslavia. The operation turned from air defence in Italy to offensive bombing in Yugo. A LOT of NATO countries had air to air planes like Norvegian F-16s. That version then not kitted out for air to ground. Or unwilling to do air to ground. Due to limited basing in Sigonella, NATO did not want more air to air fighters, they wanted bomb trucks. Our CF-18s were welcomed, even though our ground attack armament was not great at the time.

[@ovk-ih1zp]

The Navy has always preferred in-air charging of gun due to the crowded nature or the Hanger/Flight Deck. Far, FAR too many squishy vulnerable things(Deck Crew, Pilots & Other FULLY Loaded Aircraft) both below decks & on the Flight Deck to have live guns/ordnance on the aircraft. That's one of the reasons the Electronic Arming systems were installed on the SBD Dive Bombers at Midway, some of which malfunctioned, creating early releases. The Navy has always been a little leary of live ordnance on a Rolling & pitching Flight Deck/Hanger that is as much of "Organized Chaos" as a carrier spotting a strike package, nothing quite like a plane waiting in the Stack to launch that accidentally ventilates with guns another aircraft overloaded with ordinance & fuel or releases bombs/rockets into the plane park before launch.

[@wbertie2604]

4 Hispanos fire 40 rounds a second and 8 50 cals about 100, but given the nature of probability and the size and speed of targets, the chance of at least one hit against a fighter is pretty much the same for most attack scenarios. The number of likely hits is about proportional to the rate of fire. So a 4 cannon armed aircraft is going to do more damage overall. However, if you are looking at USAAF logistics, having one ammunition type by 1943 onwards, by and large, for bomber defensive guns and fighter offensive guns of a calibre also being used by the US Army when you have to ship everything overseas makes a lot of sense. It's part of the reason why the UK stuck with .303s so long - simplified logistics and production (2 calibres, but one ubiquitous even if far too weak by 1943) until later when a change to 50 cals in bombers and fighters began.

[@dennismason3740]

Encyclopedia Gregtannia. I crack me up. Incendiary ammo brings me right back to sober (literally since 1982).

[@sadwingsraging3044]

The propeller on a plane is there to cool the pilot. Don't believe me? Watch the pilot start sweating if it quits blowing!

[@amandastevenson4948]

Between the Wildcat and the p-38 you have destroyed my childhood obsession with the Corsair and the Mustang

[@sangell3]

I was a P-47 fan because William Wyler made that movie 'Thunderbolt'. The squadron commander of the featured unit was Lt. Colonel Gil Wymond of Louisville, Kentucky. He flew over almost 150 misssions in a P-47 during the war but was killed flying a Republic F-84 in 1949. This is why Gregg's videos are so important. Great men die in bad airplanes.

[@otohikoamv]

Few things to excite me more about starting a video than hearing Greg say right off the bat that he's going to drift off-topic - because honestly, I can't think of another channel where the diversions are as erudite, surprising, and insightful as this one!

[@LA_Commander]

I saw a documentary on the P-38 Lightning and some of the pilots remarked how that single 20mm canon in the nose would just "tear up" any plane in front of it. Yes, it had 4 .50 calibers as well, but with roughly 1 of every 6 rounds coming out as a 20mm shell the pilots were very impressed with its performance. Especially when you consider how lightly most of the Japanese planes were built.

[@paultullis1420]

Thanks for another installment in your great P-47 series. One factor which I didn't hear you mention in your comparison of .50 vs 20mm is that you can carry a lot more .50 rounds than 20mm rounds in a given space. Thus an additional advantage of .50s is that you can stay in the fight longer.

[@rogerpattube]

27:25

[@johnp9402]

I LOVE JUGS!!!

[@drawingboard82]

Greg I've driven home from my secret mountain lair so I can be somewhere with a good signal to watch this!