I'm really bad :(

[Demian]

I'm not able to only get one bomber to the ground with a fighter. Any tutorials, literature, videos (preferibly in german) that could made me a better ww2 pilot?

[-OrLoK- Слава Україн]

I'm going to use the dreaded P word.

practice.

I have hundreds of hours but I still suck too! but everyone I play I get a little better.

try sticking to one plane and learn it's pros and cons.

[Disarray]

A lot of bomber killing, well all planes really, comes down to where you shoot them. If you simply shoot bombers in the center of mass you are not going to do much real damage unless you get really lucky. There are three places you want to aim to kill bombers quickly. First and best are the engines. They are big, stuck out in the open and not well defended on WW2 bombers. Shoot out just one engine on a bomber and it will be crippled and if it does not go down it will be much easier to kill. Some planes like the HE 111 will mostly fall out of the sky missing one engine, especially if the plane is under a heavy load of bombs and fuel. Shooting at the engines will also damage the wing that it is imbedded in and that will compound the damage with loss of lift.

The second place to aim for is the tail. It is a smaller target but if you cripple the tail controls of a bomber it is dead, better still, if you can take the rudder off the plane it is dead. It is a high risk high reward target. It is harder to hit and depending on your angle of attack if you miss your shot you are not likely to hit something else vital.

The last major target zone are the fuel tanks. They are typically located near the engines inside the wing, usually between the wing and the body of the plane. Some planes have center mounted fuel tanks as well but they are a bit harder to get at. The big plus to hitting the tanks is you will likely set the plane on fire and then they are as good as dead; I've plaid more than 1000 hours of the game and only ever extinguished a fire once. When you are shooting at these tanks you will likely hit other things, like the engines, so that is a plus.

If you are shooting at fighter planes you can get away with hitting center mass a little more. There is a lot less plane between you and vital points on a fighter. You can easily send a 20 mm cannon round though the tail of a 109 and have it lodge in the engine or pass through the pilot and both will destroy the plane. All the major points on a bomber are valid targets for a fighter as well. But you also stand a better chance to kill the pilot of a fighter than that of a bomber. The major difference in target choice against a fighter is you can easily shoot a fighter's wing off. Both the wing root and wing tip are good places to shoot, the root being better as if you miss that you might hit something else.

I don't speak German, but I hope this helps.

[Surrexen]

Make sure the plane is trimmed correctly when commencing your attack. Having the plane trimmed makes the gun platform far more stable and predictable. Gun convergence is another factor, I think the default is something like 300m, you might want to experiment with this, but I have always found 250m convergence is far more useful and accurate in air to air.

Combine this with what Dissaray said above. If you trim the plane, get gun convergence how you like it so you can be more accurate, and put big holes in enemy engines you will have more success.

[Hartford688]

All good stuff above. If you have general stability problems while attacking, and have not tweaked your joystick, this may help:

https://youtu.be/LB9bDVC5LtI

[Litva]

Demian님이 먼저 게시:

I'm not able to only get one bomber to the ground with a fighter. Any tutorials, literature, videos (preferibly in german) that could made me a better ww2 pilot?

Bombers have a strong defence, find weak spot.
Simple dive on the bombers or go head on.

[Ribbon]

In short;
Aim engines, wings and cockpit.
Do not sit on bomber's six and shoot at it's fuselage it will only get you killed.
Go form various angles, dive on him (shoot engines), go bellow him than climb again on him and aim engines!

[Demian]

Oh, wow..very nice. Really appreciate all that help and efforts here. There seem to be some advance based on the fixing that wobble thing and apportion more meaning to the planes individual characteristics (turntime, climbspeed etc.). So I'm able to get in superiority against big heavy planes by the KI, but be still happy to land only a few hits with my full ammo contingent, let alone the point aiming precisly on certain components. But maby thats still a question of more practice.

[Hartford688]

Good to hear! Yes, the learning curve is not at all easy...but sounds like you are getting there!

[Disarray]

If you are finding you are running out of ammo before you can land hits there are fixes for this too. Set up a quick battle and in the difficulty/realism settings you can turn on two things that will help practice. First is a lead indicator. This will tell you how far out in front of the target you need to be shooting. Keep in mind that this indicator shows point of aim for center mass so you will have to adjust your aim accordingly to hit your desired target point. This can help with familiarization with weapons.

The second thing that will help is infinite ammo. This will allow you to shoot until your target is dead and you can even set the targets to never stop coming so you can keep practicing until you are conferrable. It is also really fun.

Once you get used to the gun handling you can turn off the lead indicator and do it by eye and using the marks on the gunsight. Then once you get better with landing shots where you want them to go turn off the infinite ammo and learn ammo conservation. That is how I did it, that and a lot of stick-to-it attitude and failing. Eventually I figured it out.

[Demian]

Yeah, I did that already. Fisrt I thought something like, that I could to much accustom with it, but actually thats not the case. First I was a bit suprised how much you have to aim ahead of the target (I don't know the english word, in german we say 'vorhalten' ^^). So I think thats a valuable knowledge. Actually yesterday I managed to shoot down a bomber even in Il-2 1946. ;)

[Gwyd1on]

Demian님이 먼저 게시:

Yeah, I did that already. Fisrt I thought something like, that I could to much accustom with it, but actually thats not the case. First I was a bit suprised how much you have to aim ahead of the target (I don't know the english word, in german we say 'vorhalten' ^^). So I think thats a valuable knowledge. Actually yesterday I managed to shoot down a bomber even in Il-2 1946. ;)

Aiming ahead of targets in flight is called "deflection shooting" and "leading" shots. In the P40E its a REAL pain in the ass on account of the size of its damn nose. (I love my P40 to death, but that nose, yeesh.)

Anyway, in my ironman career, I have currently scored 153 aerial victories, (this includes parked.)

The biggest thing for me was not to get excited when I went in for the kill, I have to remind myself that getting excited makes my aim unsteady.

Also, Im not a good dogfighter. The majority of my kills occur as suprise attacks, I fly at 10,000 feet or above, and watch for german patrols along the border (or bombers, or whatever) I dive on them, blast one, sometimes two, and peel off and head back for my airspace. They usually have no idea what hit them.

I hope this helps.

[-OrLoK- Слава Україн]

I agree with gwydion.

don't be a "hero".

don't insist on wasting all your ammo on one evading aircraft.

choose the softest most easily killable target.

I always try to save ammo for an enemy airstrip returning home.

don't be afraid to turn tail and run if you can get away with it.