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 Author  Topic: Aft deck mounted 20 mm sights?
PeterTareBuilder2

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of PeterTareBuilder2  Posted on: Aug 4, 2013 - 6:03pm
Ahoy there.

I was looking at a number of images of 20 mm Oerlikon guns recently. This is the gun mounted on the aft deck of the 103 Class 80' Elco boats.

It seems to me that many times there were no sights used on the gun. This got me to thinking. Is it because most action occurred at night and thuse the sights weren't really needed?

Was it reaally very common to not use sights on the 20 mm in combat day as well as night?

Thanks and cheers from Peter

"Give me a fast boat for we want to get out of harm's way too."

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David Buck

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of David Buck   Send Email To David Buck Posted on: Aug 5, 2013 - 2:38am
Hi Peter,

The British when they were training their men to fire the Bren Gun would teach them to aim it like a hose at close quarters IE; use the fall of shot and the tracer rounds to adjust their aim to walk the rounds onto their target, when you think of the close range of the PT Boats fire fights this would be the best method to put the rounds on target the fastest.

Having fired a fair number of full auto weapons in the Aust. Army I can say this method is a lot easer at close range than trying to use sights. This held true for me up to about 500 yards on man size targets but something like a barge which is a lot larger would extend that a fair way.

Hope that helps.

Yours,

D.buck

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PeterTareBuilder2

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of PeterTareBuilder2  Posted on: Aug 5, 2013 - 7:34am


Quote:

Hi Peter,

The British when they were training their men to fire the Bren Gun would teach them to aim it like a hose at close quarters IE; use the fall of shot and the tracer rounds to adjust their aim to walk the rounds onto their target, when you think of the close range of the PT Boats fire fights this would be the best method to put the rounds on target the fastest.

Having fired a fair number of full auto weapons in the Aust. Army I can say this method is a lot easer at close range than trying to use sights. This held true for me up to about 500 yards on man size targets but something like a barge which is a lot larger would extend that a fair way.

Hope that helps.

Yours,

D.buck



Ahoy there.

I used to do the same with the .30 calibre GPMG we used.

I think hat you are right about it being quicker to acquire the target too.

However, I still need to know if it was common for US PT boaers (80' Elco) to not use sights on the aft deck mounted 20 mm Oerlikon.

Cheers from Peter

"Give me a fast boat for we want to get out of harm's way too."

Total Posts: 204 | Joined: Dec 8, 2012 - 6:03pm | IP Logged

Bob Butler

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Bob Butler  Posted on: Aug 5, 2013 - 8:35am
Hey Peter, I was in a tank company, M48's and M60's in the early 70's. We were dealing with moving and bouncing too, but we had jets setting up straffing runs on us. What we were taught was to set up a line with the target, fire and let the target fly through the line of bullets. That is if you even saw the target coming and that was a big if. We were sitting ducks. Usually a line of tanks is kicking up enough dust to be seen for miles away. The frist tank was facing forward and the others following were angled left or right forward and the last few tanks were left or right to the rear width the last tank 's turret to the rear. So we had all angles covered. When an aircraft would come in they were low no more than a 100 feet off the deck and very fast maybe 300 or 400 mph, to fast to react. For anti-aircraft I dought if sights were used. Slow moving targets and stationary targets the sights could be effective. There are some Photos of PT194 I think as well as others on the net The forward 20mm has some real long extensions for handles in the shape of a 'J' in place of the shoulder rest. No one has told me but I would assume that is what these are used for.


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Will Day

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Will Day   Send Email To Will Day Posted on: Aug 5, 2013 - 10:37am
@Peter: All of the photos I have of 80'ers Out In The Area don't seem to show sights on stern-mounted 20mms.

Will

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PeterTareBuilder2

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of PeterTareBuilder2  Posted on: Aug 5, 2013 - 3:44pm
Quote:

@Peter: All of the photos I have of 80'ers Out In The Area don't seem to show sights on stern-mounted 20mms.

Will




Ahoy there Will.

Thank you very much! That's what I was hoping for.

This Lindberh kit is a god but it's fun to see what one can do to improve it at minimal cost to the builder. A lot of people have had a lot of fun building and running these models. The new Italeri PT-103 Class kit will kill the Lindberg one.

Cheers from Peter

"Give me a fast boat for we want to get out of harm's way too."

Total Posts: 204 | Joined: Dec 8, 2012 - 6:03pm | IP Logged


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