BT tank footage

(Some scenes appear to be shown at accelerated speed, though.)

More bouncin'

 

On some days ...

THIS

  

simply is my life in WT ground forces today!

The Mk 108

Mk 108 - that designation stems from "Maschinenkanone 108". The figrue has no special meaning. All items developed for the German aviation ministry received a numerical code, and few figures were re-used. Mk meant Maschinenkanone, MG meant Maschinengewehr and otherwise the letters in front of the figures were usually telling about the company or lead designer (similar as with the Japanese navy: A6M = naval fighter, sixth, Mitsubishi).

Most of the sounds in these videos are fake, for gunc ameras had no audio recording. Only a handful of dedicated recordings for propaganda and training purposes may have had audio recording, but I doubt it.

Concerning the Mk 108 in War Thunder:

Its shell is very, very slow and low density. You need to lead aim much farther forward of the target than with 13 or 20 mm guns, and this is important to know since all Mk 108 users but the Me 262 series have mixed armament.

The lead target indicator in AB mode will always be for the biggest calibre that's ready to fire. In a mixed 30 mm + 13 mm armament, it will be for 30 mm. In mixed 30 mm and 20 mm armament it will be for 30 mm, period. The other guns need less lead in deflection shooting, which means that with mixed armaments you better do not aim far forward (such as at the pilot of aB-17) with the Mk 108, but instead a little less forward than you otherwise would. This gives your other guns a better chance to hit at least the tail. This matters the most against the short fighters, obviously.

Even better, hold back your 30 mm fire until at about 500 m, and then one long burst for the kill, break.

You won't need the 30 mm gun pos on the Bf 109 G-6/-10/-14 to kill if you can aim well. They're awfully heavy anyway. It sure is delightful to see just about every target disintegrate in a huge explosion after but a short burst, but a single gun really is much better for survival.

Remember that a low muzzle velocity weapon such as the Mk 108 requires that you aim rather high at long ranges, such as in head-on engagements (which you really should avoid if possible) or generally at ranges 600-1,200 m. I don't think more than 800 m is practical with Mk 108 even in AB.

I swear, many WT players think they are like this

 

They aren't. 

A player could do amazing aerobatics with the I-153P "Chaika", but then again, air combat isn't much about aerobatics!

Relevant manoeuvres are in my opinion:

Boom and zoom (dive, shoot, pull up)

defensive spiral (to avoid getting hit by someone trying BnZ on you)

Scissors (if nothing else works and you don't roll slower than your pursuer)

Rope a dope (enjoying altitude/energy advantage, you lure him to climb up to you, counterclimb, then dive on him when he's very slow and shoot)

wingover (very rarely, and usually as part of a rope a dope)

loops (if your plane is MUCH better at vertical manoeuvres)

Immelmann (not in a fight, though)

barrel roll attack (primarily useful if your target is distracted)

high yo-yo (primarily if you'd overshoot your target otherwise)

Split-S (if a quicker pursuer forces you into a dogfight when you are slow)

By far the most common techniques used by me in air combat against fighters are BnZ, rope-a-dope and simply attack with advantage of surprise. I rarely need to use the other abovementioned maneuvers.

Beginner pilots should understand rope-a-dope and stop falling prey to it.

They should also learn to simply wobble around and flee to the blue spawn or blue airfield defence  (at low altitude) if they have a comparable fighter on their tail.

Pay attention and don't fly in a straight ling when in a bomber under attack.

Withdraw after surviving a dogfight and look around (regain situational awareness) instead of continuing to dogfight at low energy in a furball.

Learn BnZ once you learned to hit something in the air, and reliably so.

Most importantly, learn to pay attention to your surroundings.

P-51B film

The scissors manoeuvre

I can't recommend this video enough:

The scissors are one of the few things in WT that I didn't figure out myself how to do right.

Essentially, this allows a good Fw 190A-4 player to beat a median Spitfire IX player at low altitude even if the latter begins the fight with equal energy 600 m on the Würger's tail. Well, at least more often than not.

It was also one of the reasons for why the Fw 190A-2 demolished the Spitfire Vs back in 1941/1942 so badly (the 190 rolls much better than Spits both in reality and in WT, and this is key in the scissors).

(this illustration doesn't quite show the beginning right; the attacker starts behind the defender and approx. at same altitude and speed)

I rarely used a similar tactic in such situations in AB air; lower landing gear, landing flaps, power to 0%, move erratically - all hoping that the attacker overshoots me before killing (and without ramming) me.
Oh boy, they raped me when I tried this in the 1vs1 duel tournament. So I did attempt the scissors instead in such situations, and the result wasn't much less terrible against players rated better than 250th place.

What I hadn't understood back then was the real key to success with scissors: You want them to overshoot, but you don't want to drop more in energy than they do. This means in WT AB practice that you need to climb -unnoticed by your opponent at first- more than him. This way you store more of your equal energy in potential energy, less in kinetic energy - which means he's faster and flies past you (with the option of crashing into you).
So don't use this if he's slower and above early on, or if his plane rolls better.
When you do the scissors manoeuvre do roll at about the same time as him, but always try to climb a bit more. With really, really well-rolling planes you may minimise your silhouette when he gets a snap shot at you (by rolling such that he doesn't have your wings as hit area except in front of your fuselage).

A bunch of old Bundeswehr videos about tanks

Self-sealing fuel tanks

The reason why Japanese planes are fireballs in the making:

Most of them don't have such fuel tanks.

 

Video: Ki-10 is Helicopter

Video: "Acrobatics" 1943 USAAF Pilot Training Film