Nose Gun Ju88

[MOG Screwball]

~S~ hi guys I noticed in a video by JG4_DUI he has the nose gun removed for better cockpit view, can anyone explain how this was done?

[III./ZG76_Saipan]

go to the loadout page and set that gun to none. i forget the actual number

[xvii-Dietrich]

When you go to start the mission, you will see an image of the aeroplane that you will be flying. You can double-click on that to change the aircraft type.

Then, on that page, you will see near the bottom right a "Loadout" button. Select that to configure the aircraft.

From here, you can change your fuel, bombs, etc.. Notice the tabs: "Weapon sets", "Bombs", "Guns"?

Right... so click on "Weapon sets". You should see a list of things like Nose Gun, Rear Gun, etc., with the weapon type listed there. That weapon is a drop-down menu. Do this for the Nose Gun and select empty.

Then you can accept this and fly and the nose gun will be absent from your aircraft. :hpyflying:

[MOG Screwball]

Thanks guys for the prompt replies, worked great, good for practice flights, not sure if I want to fly missions on the server without it though.

[klu.peete]

Whats the point then hahhaaa... greats klu peete.

[xvii-Dietrich]

Whats the point then hahhaaa...

There are several good reasons for removing the A-Stand "nose" gun.

The Ju 88 A-1 is a bomber and, due to closing speeds, attacks against other aircraft in front are going to be limited. Most incoming attacks will come from the side or rear and will pull away, rather than fly on ahead. Thus the nose gun is the least-used of the three gunner positions. Additionally, again because of the closing speeds, the duration of the opportunity will be limited.

From a practical point of view, AI gunners in the game have low accuracy and rarely hit. Thus, unless you are going to man the gun yourself, there is limited benefit in having it. I have "locked" the nose gun and have chased Blenheims with my Ju 88 in a quasi-heavy-fighter role, but this is not particularly effective.

However, the main reason for removing it is as follows: Because of the extremely cramped cockpit, the presence of the nose-gun partially obscures the view of the instrumentation. When learning to fly (and even with experienced pilots), it is of great benefit to remove the gun to give a better view of the instruments. Although it is possible to have a virtual cockpit panel display, not everyone has a second monitor or computer, which makes removal of the gun even more important for these players.

Additionally, the gun and its ammunition have weight. For those of us who fly reconnaissance missions at over 8km altitude, paring off every unnecessary kilogramme makes an appreciable difference. Although I cannot remove the C-Stand "ventral" gun, I often do not load that either in order to keep weight low... for the same reason.

Historically, there were many field modifications and adaptions of the Ju 88 and the removal of the nose gun was a common one.

Thus, as the nose gun is a limited-benefit weapon with a weight and visibility penalty, it makes sense to remove it.




PS: This would be different for the night-fighter variants of the Ju 88 (such as the Ju 88 G-1), whose purpose is to have forward-firing armament. But these are not present in IL2:Cliffs-of-Dover.

[InvaderZim]

THX Dietrich, my thoughts exactly!

Most importantly (too me), engine managment in the 88 is critical, particulrly on take off and the Mode 22 bomb run when the mode 22 will cause over reving. Visual observation of the instruments and engine management during dive and pullout when the pilot is maually controlling the dive also makes observation of the instruments necessary. I always remove the forward facing gun. Frankly, if everyone is playing their proper role it works like this - my job is to get "bombs on target", fighter escorts job is to "keep bandits off me". I should have to rarly man a gun position if we are alll doing our jobs.