The Biggest Cannons Mounted On Aircraft In WW2

A huge variety of armaments were mounted on aircraft during WW2, and one such experiment which went to great lengths throughout the duration of the war was large calibre cannons. Mounting large calibre cannons on aircraft was in its infancy at the beginning of war, but very quickly exploded into a vast array of aircraft equipped with huge guns. In this video we explore the biggest.
Consider supporting us on Patreon: / aviationdeepdive
Join our Discord community: / discord
Donations to support the channel: www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted...
Sources:
militaryhistorynow.com/2015/0...
www.upi.com/Archives/1914/08/...
www.wright-brothers.org/Histo...
www.britannica.com/topic/air-...
www.pressreader.com/uk/scotti...
www.treasurebunker.com/forums...
theaviationgeekclub.com/the-m...
planehistoria.com/me-410/
ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads...
www.quora.com/What-was-the-la...
• Hawker Hurricane Mk II...
old-forum.warthunder.com/inde...
www.baesystems.com/en-uk/heri...
www.ww2-weapons.com/dh-mosqui...
www.keymilitary.com/article/m...
nationalinterest.org/blog/buz...
www.quora.com/What-was-the-la...
www.thearmorylife.com/b-25-mi...
www.wearethemighty.com/articl...
www.key.aero/article/armed-an...
www.warhistoryonline.com/airc...
airpages.ru/eng/lw/ju88p.shtml
www.aeroflight.co.uk/aircraft...
www.quora.com/Was-the-Ju88-ar...
www.militaryfactory.com/aircr...
www.warhistoryonline.com/war-...
www.militaryfactory.com/aircr...

[@aviationdeepdive]

Feel free to join our Discord community! - discord.gg/WCevgcufwJ Consider supporting us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/AviationDeepDive

[@stuartbruff8786]

Fun fact. One of the older physics textbooks in my school library asked the student to calculate the change in airspeed of a Hurricane II D after firing a given number of 40 mm shells at a German Panzer. One of the maths books had combinatorial questions about the number of ways an officer could choose a patrol of x men given a pool of y soldiers. More advanced questions added the complication of choosing the patrol makeup according to the patrol rank structure and the numbers of each rank available in a platoon or company. In those days, it was naturally assumed that a Grammar School boy would be commissioned if they should join the services. 😊

[@The_Plastic_Ape]

Engineers: How big do you want the gun? Pilots: Yes! Great Video, great video, love it. One of your best.

[@Luddite-vd2ts]

I'm surprised that you didn't mention the JU87 equipped with 37mm anti tank guns. I understood it was used by Hans-Ulrich Rudel and in his hands it was very effective.

[@aviationdeepdive]

Those 37s were the same calibre as we left off in WW1, so too small to mention!

[@kkteutsch6416]

​@@aviationdeepdivebut just one shot of " too small " 37 mm cannon at a root of the wing on a B 24 or B 17 bombers could ripp the entiree wing off

[@andreaslangner6621]

​​@@aviationdeepdive Hans Ulrich Rudel Destroyed more then 500 Tanks and a Lot of Other vehicles.

[@Luddite-vd2ts]

@andreaslangner6621 as the originator of this comment, that's really what I was getting at. To put a vulgar but humorous slant on it, it's not what you've got. It's how you use it 😉 Most of the much larger weapons illustrated in this piece seemed to come with complications. What the application of the 37mm weapon showed was that, sometimes less is more.

[@oldcremona]

​@@Luddite-vd2ts probably the most famous aerial cannon of the war.

[@ripvanwinkle2002]

first of your vids ive watched. bloody good effort. ill check out more of your stuff. cheers from the USA

[@aviationdeepdive]

Thanks! Glad you liked it!

[@dritzzdarkwood4727]

The narrator's voice is strangely soothing!

[@blandoworthlessness]

Great video! Those schematics of the autocannons are fascinating!

[@nemilyk]

The Mossie with the Molins was the Mk XVIII (18), not the Mk VIII (8).

[@thebritishengineer8027]

Note: The armour was fitted to protect the Mosquito from debris thrown up by hits from the gun. The Mossie was so fast, that once in range the pilot only had time for 3 shots or he would be running into flak thrown up by his own strikes. From the crews, they hit more than one U-boat. I did hear a rumour that the MOD tested a 32lb gun (94mm) in the Mossie after the war and it was very accurate, but that is a rumour. The 57mm was not the biggest gun here, but at 55 rounds a minute it certainly wins on sheer damage per minute.

[@TheLateBird7]

Yay, what a fun topic! Great video, as always.

[@Munakas-wq3gp]

I used to have fun with the big guns in Aces High. It was extremely difficult to hit enemy planes with the cannon but when you did, they went off with a bang.

[@ravenclaw8975]

Very informative, Thanks!

[@phil20_20]

The A-26 mounted up to 8 .50 Cals, but there were other configurations, combining with 20mm, 37mm, and 75mm. Most of them didn't make it out of prototyping before the war ended. Lucky for the Axis. There were also wing and turret mounted .50s in addition to the 8 (or 6) mounted in the nose for as many as 14 .50 Cals on target at once.

[@chrisedwards196]

The Yak 9T had an NS-37 canon with 200 rounds of ammo. It was so successful there was 2,748 examples built, it was also very popular with its pilots.

[@John-wm4xk]

Outstanding content

[@MGB-learning]

Great video

[@jansnopek3376]

There is also Yakovlev Yak-9K with 45 mm NS-45 cannon.

[@MarkHarrison-bo3kf]

That civilian with the instant camera could have made some serious money if he marketed his invention!

[@martinjf467]

My thoughts exactly!

[@stuartwillard6558]

The Whirlwind fighter was tested with a 37mm cannon but that’s as far as it went.

[@theackshow5048]

I LOVE how my dad seems to appear in every B25G-related video on KZbin! That's him in the cockpit of a "G" at the B25 factory at the Fairfax plant in Kansas City, Kansas. Lord HardThrasher, among others, also used pieces from a WWII newsreel video placed on KZbin seen here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXbInGh_q6yMgcksi=TRfIpFQOmS1MMZ9c Dad also clearly appears at :25 into the original video. Just to be clear, I hold no animosity whatsoever (!) against the use of the video in this manner. Actually, I find it a bit hilarious that my dad - who passed in 1968 - actually beat me onto KZbin! (kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHq6YXuolq-iiNEsi=bbEPlj-HkKqhNnGN). Thanks Aviation Deep Dive!

[@trevorgale1176]

I believe the Mozzie was the most successful of the bunch in service and was credited with two U boats plus other shipping.

[@jackgraves5121]

Irc the use of the Mosquito's gun could cause a momentarily pause and drop before the plane continued flying forward. Quite unnerving for the crew. The hope was to fire below waterline, entering one side of the ship/sub and exiting out the other side. 2 gushing holes being harder to fix than 1.

[@Peasmouldia]

As a card carrying pedant, I'm really enjoying the pronunciation comments. It's "Boss-com" Down by the way...,, Nice video. Ta.

[@bjornforsman1346]

Bofors made a special 57mm aircraft gun called m/47 used in the SAAB T18B twin engine strike aircraft. Made in 60 examples of wich one is at the Swedish Airforce museum. The gun/aircraft combination was quite succesful and had a good precision, but by the late 40s early 1950s it was surpassed by the jets. In the late 1950s they were replaced by SAAB A32 Lansen.

[@davidgreenland9136]

the muliner was also fitted in the bristol beufitter

[@dannynye1731]

Stakken built a 5 engined RML bomber with a 130 mm cannon that fired straight down and trialed it in 1916

[@vincentcondron588]

Very nice video but there was a also an idea to put 2 40mm cannon in the beaufighter

[@jorgeyamane6655]

What about the Ju 87 G with cannons mounted on the wings?

[@yt-watcher-finn]

Forgot Cannon Stuka JU87G ?

[@UniversalChallenge4454]

37 mm is not big enough by world war 2

[@aviationdeepdive]

Those 37s were the same calibre as we left off in WW1, so too small to mention!

[@michaelpielorz9283]

Please do not forget the Düka series.

[@janlindtner305]

👍👍👍

[@Oligodendrocyte139]

2:00 How did a souvenir hunter take a photo? Time travelling Polaroid 😊?

[@daiichidoku]

beat me to it.

[@daiichidoku]

he said picture, not photo...so presumably it was Bob Ross who did a pencil sketch, or some dude drew stick-figure dead aviators

[@Oligodendrocyte139]

@@daiichidoku I did wonder if the souvenir hunter removed the photo from the belongings of one of the dead airmen.

[@daiichidoku]

@@Oligodendrocyte139 that would make sense

[@Hartley_Hare]

He took it off one of the dead airmen, I think.

[@Otokichi786]

No mention of the Voisin IV's 47mm cannon variant? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voisin_IV

[@75Mayak]

Why there is no word about 37mm in Aircobra and Kingcobra?

[@stuew6]

The 75mm gun from M24 Chaffee Tank

[@kkteutsch6416]

Why mix tanks with airplanes ?

[@michaeltelson9798]

When they were developing the M24 they searched for an appropriate main gun. This stripped down 75mm gun on the B25 fit the bill. When used on the B25, the recoil felt like the the aircraft stopped forward motion.

[@daystatesniper01]

Big cal' guns at this time were almost useless by the time it reloaded you were past your target

[@allandavis8201]

The JU87-G2 “Kannonvogel” did not carry the largest guns, only two 37mm Cannons, but I think it would have been worth a place in this excellent, informative and fun video. Why bring in the AC-130 at the end, it had nothing to do with WWII????. 😢

[@aviationdeepdive]

It was just part of the conclusion, to give some context of how WW2 took us from small cannons to just about, almost the largest cannon that has ever been mounted.

[@jamesrose1460]

You did not mention the Germans built a Dorneir DO-17Z..and later the Do-217...both which carried a huge 215mm Recoiless cannon...that carried up to 10 rounds. I have seen photos of it...including one of a 217 my Grandfather's navigator took from his Mosquito as they engaged it at dawn over the Hiegoland in early '44. The barrel was slung under the fuselage, and was intended for Anti-shipping or large ground targets like bridges...and the barrel was some 30 feet long....and when fired a jet of flame shot some 20 feet behind the aircraft. According to my searching..there were 5 guns built...and the single 217 was taken off a damaged 17Z in the early winter or 44...and he only got the picture back after 4 months with the photo interpretation unit. I have no idea where picture went..but was like 12 when I saw it..and it was a blurry image of the aircraft but the gun was evident.

[@kenstewart5991]

They had a 57mm. Cannon on some anti-sub planes.

[@thewatcher5271]

What About The Bell P-39/P-63 With Their 37mm Cannon Firing Through The Propeller Hub? Thank You. (Like #705)

[@horaciokanashiro-hv2zn]

⭐👍

[@UniversalChallenge4454]

The mosquito machine guns was just because 57 mm cannon did not offer enough darka

[@patrickporter1864]

Six pounder gun. Antitank in a plane.

[@user-in9in8hf9w]

raf figured out the big gun wasn't worth the effort, a load of rockets on the wing was just as effective, quoted as being a broadisde from a cruiser

[@beachboy0505]

20:17 The Lockheed 105mm weapon needs total airsupremacy. Saddam shot a few of these down in the 1991 Gulf War with SAM.

[@brittakriep2938]

Düsenkanone? Surely Düsenkanone.

[@UniversalChallenge4454]

The b 25 gunships had up 8 50 cal just because the American army air corp wanted to teach the Japanese the virtues of the second amendment

[@tomdelvetto9906]

You can thank pappy Gunn for that

[@Sherwoody]

There’s one of these that flies with The Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It goes by the name Hot Jen.

[@michaelpielorz9283]

A lot of countries got a fair share of freedom and democracie in 0.50!

[@monza1002000]

Bristol Beaufighters carried ten, plus 8 64lbs rockets

[@monza1002000]

​@@michaelpielorz9283USA doesn't even have democracy

[@sfdeliveries76]

What about the P-38?

[@UniversalChallenge4454]

90mm no not big enough get a a Bigga gun

[@andyc3088]

samsung made french aircraft in ww1 lol

[@FireAllOfEverythingAtOnce]

Japan told everyone, "Hold'a my sake!". 3 words: Space Battleship Yamato. 9 x 18+ inch cannons, plus -- plus -- a multi-meter diameter Wave Motion Gun (capable of destroying continents). Retractable delta wings & a Wave Motion Engine allowed atmospheric flight, to achieve orbit. Flying battleship *mic drop*.

[@tommytwotacos8106]

"Car-BEEN." Please, say it with me now, "car-BEEN". See how much nicer that sounds? When you're talking a rifle with a shorter overall length than a typical main battle rifle, that's how it's pronounced. Thanks.

[@aviationdeepdive]

In British English it's pronounced "Kar-Bine". Words sometimes have different pronunciations in different accents of English.

[@chemputer]

Man, you'd think such a pretentious asshole would maybe check the dictionary where it clearly shows two correct pronunciations? Then again ignorance and arrogance often go together.

[@Hartley_Hare]

My pomposity gauge has exploded, Tommy. You've broken it.

[@FranchDressing]

Americans when literally the whole world doesn't pander to their preferences

[@jimroberts3009]

Yes, "Kar-Bine" in Britain and the Commonwealth. Say it with me now "Kar-Bine", sounds right to me. Thanks. Good video as always.