Schräge Musik (literally “Strange” or “Slanted” music) is a
term used to describe vertically mounted, upward-firing machine guns or
autocannons that were fitted to German and Japanese night-fighters and
bomber interceptors during WWII. This unique configuration proved highly
effective in both the European and Pacific Fronts, and some select
aircraft have this feature for you to try out in the game!
Usage
Only one control is required for use of the Schräge Musik cannons. The “Schräge Musik” cannon activation key (unbound by default) toggles the view between being centred on the reticle of the conventional or Schräge Musik cannons. In addition, entering the mode will also enable the Schräge Musik cannons to be fired using the conventional armament keybinds.
Making flight adjustments using the mouse from this unusual viewpoint can be difficult at first, so flying while in Schräge Musik mode may need to be practised.
However, this does
not apply if the weapons selector
is enabled: in this case, all selected guns will be fired — including
Schräge Musik, typically denoted “AG” (additional guns) — regardless of
the current view. Likewise, if Schräge Musik guns are not selected in the weapons selector, they will not be fired even in Schräge Musik mode.
Only a small number of aircraft are equipped with Schräge Musik in-game:
- Bf 110 G-4 — 2 × 20 mm MG FF/M
- Hungarian Bf 110 G-4 — 2 × 20 mm MG FF/M
- Do 217 N-2 — 4 × 20 mm MG 151
- Ju 388 J — 2 × 20 mm MG 151
- Ki-45 tei — 2 × 20 mm Ho-5
- Chinese Ki-45 hei/tei — 2 × 20 mm Ho-5
History
Even during WWI, various forces (particularly the British and French) were experimenting with different mountings of armament on their aircraft. The idea of the upward-firing gun found its first successes in 1916, being used to easily target the vulnerable undersides of German Zeppelin airships. This configuration was quickly found to also allow pilots to attack enemy aircraft from the blind spot below the tail, and the practice of mounting upwards-firing guns was continued in the RAF until the end of the war. However, during the interwar period, the development of a separate armed barbette, allowing highly flexible aiming angles and the addition of a gunner to decrease the workload of the pilot, was found to surpass the original fixed upward gun mounting, and development ceased.
Germany
In 1941, Oberleutnant Rudolf Schoenert began experimenting with the upward positioning of guns, fitting vertical MG 17 machine guns to his Do 17 Z-10: the first instance of the “Schräge Musik” arrangement as it would come to be known. Though he had been working amidst general scepticism from his peers, gunnery trials quickly quashed any reluctance felt by senior officials, with the only real issue found being the introduction of parallax error in the reflector gunsight if the pilot’s head moved. Three Do 217 J night-fighters were approved to be fitted with twin 20 mm MG 151 cannons mounted at 20° from the vertical for further testing.
Meanwhile, Schoenert fitted a pair of oblique MG 151s to his own Bf 110, and achieved 18 kills with them between August and December 1943. From this point, there was no denying that Schräge Musik was significantly more effective for countering bombers than conventional attacks: it improved the firing solution, by increasing target visibility and enlarging their available silhouette; and also improved survivability of the interceptor, by allowing them to avoid the rear warning radars and heavy defenses in the tail, in favour of relatively undefended and invisible positions under the belly of the bomber.
While the concept itself was effective, its success was exacerbated by the reactions of RAF and USAF Bomber Commands. They were slow to react to the new threat, with increasing losses in early 1944 attributed instead to flak fire and a myth that Germany had developed “scarecrow shells” — AA shells mimicking an exploding bomber designed to damage morale. Initial countermeasures included one of the gunners lying on the floor of the bomber to act as an observer, and deploying Mosquitos as escort fighters to detect the radar emissions of potential Schräge Musik-equipped German interceptors.
However, Schräge Musik also had a number of downsides. By 1944, Schräge Musik was increasingly being installed using 30 mm Mk 108 cannons for their heavy firepower; however, the low muzzle velocity meant that the aircraft needed to fly extremely close to the target and match their (typically slower) speed in order to aim effectively, opening them up to the risk of being hit by shrapnel, debris, and the no-longer air-worthy airframe of their target.
Japan
At the same time, the Japanese also began trialling the Schräge Musik concept. In 1943, Commander Yasuna Kozono converted a Nakajima J1N1-C reconnaissance plane to equip two pairs of Type 99 cannons firing both upwards and downwards. On 21 May 1943, this aircraft shot down two B-17s around Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, and the IJN immediately placed orders for the type, now designated J1N1-S. Other aircraft variants continued to be experimented with throughout the war, including the Ki-45, Ki-46, and A6M5.
Allies
Allied designs mainly included highly flexible turrets to perform the same purpose as the fixed Schräge Musik installations of the Axis, such as in the case of the British Boulton Paul Defiant and American P-61 “Black Widow”, which also proved successful against enemy bomber formations, particularly during the Blitz of 1940-41. However, some experimental designs were also equipped with Schräge Musik-like gun installations, such as Douglas A-20 Havoc BD126, which was fitted with six upward-firing .50 cal machine guns behind the cockpit, whose angle could be slightly adjusted by the gunner. The aircraft was tested at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment in 1941.
Experiments with Schräge Musik continued into the post-war era: in 1947, the USAF modified an F-80A with two .50 cal machine guns fitted on an upward-firing mount in the nose, as a potential countermeasure against Soviet bombers. Aircraft also continued to be designed with highly elevatable gun mountings, with the F-89, designed to replace the P-61, initially designed with a unique swivelable nose turret, and some prototypes of the MiG-17 featured elevatable guns into the early 1950s.
