I am aware of this plane and seen pictures of it in several guises including a cannon But I have never seen this wonderful cutaway drawing of how an automatic Pak 75 worked in one . Nor the films of them in action. Probably my lack of knowledge but great to me to see. The Nazi's Flying Artillery - Henschel HS129 - The Firearm Blog For tanks it would appear that a 40 mm would penetrate the top and certainly the engine covers on most tanks and carry more ammunition but for ships and buildings, bridges, etc. the 75 makes more sense. If this is old news, say from the 1940's (!) Please delete . Gaines
The blog is click bait and contains some dubious statements. The Hs129 was designed as a heavily armoured ground attack aircraft, but it wasn't designed "designed around the 75mm gun" unlike the A10. The Hs129 wasn't the only aircraft equipped with a 75mm gun, nearly 2,000 B25 G &H aircraft were fitted with a 75mm howitzer form the anti shipping role. Only a handful of Hs 129 aircraft reached front line units (<30).
Your being generous calling the statements "dubious"...I'd have called them dead wrong. Dead wrong. The guns the HS 129 was built around were two 20mm cannon and two 7.92mm machine guns. You see, the design began back in 1937, and the 75mm cannon was not added until the B-3 version(6th version for those keeping count). Also, the attempt was not the "first"...The Germans had attempted to put a manual-loading 75mm PaK 40 in the Ju-88, but this proved to be less than satisfactory, and the project was dropped. Is just a wretchedly worded sentence...The need for greater visibility was the reason the cockpit was so far forward, not the "bathtub".
It was clear to me that they article was written to gain attention, comparisons to the A-10 and comments about being build around the gun were ridiculous. What interested me was that beautiful cutaway drawing, which did not seem to be fake. The wit of the dubious writer did not seem to extend to that skill level. .As one who spent most of my working life drawing I appreciated it deeply. I do not expect everyone to share my views. It would be hard to know WW2 took place and not know about the B-25 and it's 75 mm gun but I do not think it is any more related to the 129 than the A-10. For some bizarre reason, probably shooting a 22-250 off a benchrest at 300 yards I have long wondered how accurate tank main guns were at 1000 yards or meters or so and that applies to cannon mounted in aircraft as to hit probability.. It was the first time I had seen footage of the 129 using the 75 in action. It was obviously a rare system that caught my interest.. Next time I will write a preface that I understand the current internet article is gibberish and I understand the difference between it and other more factual content so that you will not have to explain it to me. and waste your time ! LOL Gaines
From my readings, the Hs 129 wasn't all that great of an aircraft, though I believe it had some success in the Battle of Kursk. I've always wondered why they mounted that god-awful monster into an a/c that wasn't exactly over-powered to begin with. A pair of Mk 103 30mm cannons would have been a better choice. That footage certainly wasn't of a 75mm, but more likely the original 20mm/7.9mm weapons.
That was the Rüstsatz 8 field modification kit for the HS 129B-1 & B-2, they were also to have been the armament on the abandonded C-1 variant.
Spot on regarding the footage harolds, that's video of fast firing MGs (or MK's?). I've seen gun camera footage from Kursk of what appears to be the 75mm in action, it's a much slower firing gun than what is shown in that link.