Comment by bell-cot
1 year ago
Wikipedia has a short, focused section on the 57mm-cannon Mosquito variant, starting 3 paragraphs down here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Mosquito#Strike_(...
The canon was an anti-tank gun ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordnance_QF_6_pounder ), the primary intended target was U-boats, and they added quite a bit of armor (to help with AA fire from uncooperative U-boats).
It doesn't sound like the cannon-armed Mosquito was (at the time) seen as successful. OTOH, I'd guess that the Allies having both good radar, and ~350MPH clouds of cannon-armed Mosquitos, would have imposed some pretty miserable operational limitations on the Germans.
Dif you not see the article arguing for two seat manned aircraft with cannons in the modern era? Claiming they could shoot down migs with flechette cannons?
Aircraft with such big guns were perhaps not a success, but aircraft with radar, bombs and depth charges became a deadly menace for u-boats.