Hispano Mk.II (20 mm)

Description

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General info

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Available ammunition

• Default: HEI · HEI · P · T
• Universal: HEI · SAP-I · AP · T
• Ground targets: AP · AP · AP · HEI · T
• Air targets: T · HEI · SAP-I · HEI · SAP-I
• Tracers: AP · T · HEI
• Stealth: HEI · HEI · SAP-I · AP

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
	10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
HEI	5	4	3	2	2	2
T	17	15	11	7	5	0
SAP-I	26	24	17	11	7	4

Shell details
Ammunition	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
						0%	50%	100%
HEI	853	0.13	0.1	0.1	9.28	79°	80°	81°
T	835	0.13	-	-	-	47°	56°	65°
SAP-I	844	0.13	0.3	0	0.01	47°	56°	65°

Comparison with analogues

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Usage in battles

The Hispano Mk.II cannons are lethal weapons, and stand out as some of the most powerful WWII-era aircraft guns in the game. The HEF-I and SAP-I shells available on many ammunition belts for these cannons deal a huge amount of damage to aircraft of any size, from fighters up to heavy bombers, and can give British pilots the edge in head-ons, interceptions, and general dogfighting. The stealth belts are especially powerful, suiting sneakier playstyles. Using cloud cover and approaching from blind spots, a Hispano-armed pilot can jump an enemy and obliterate them with a few bursts before the enemy even knows they're coming.

Like their predecessor in the Mk.I, the Mk.IIs still have some severe flaws that can be a headache. The stock guns prior to upgrade are not only prone to jamming during lengthy periods of shooting, but are hopelessly inaccurate. The stock belts are also fairly ineffective, as they lack the sheer number of high-damage shells. This makes using these guns a headache while they're stock, and it can be a difficult grind if the plane you're flying is weak at stock to begin with.

While these cannons aren't the best guns in the game for attacking ground targets, they will still do a decent chunk of damage to anything they hit, although it's highly recommended to use the Ground targets belt if available, as other belts will struggle with armoured targets. The AP rounds can destroy light pillboxes, and anything weaker should be easy pickings. Just be mindful of the inaccuracy of the guns, and your ammo count. Since these are 20 mm guns, few planes using them will stock a large amount of ammo, save for the Beaufighters and the Mosquito.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• HEF-I rounds can shred fighters in less than 3 seconds, in the hands of a skilled pilot
• AP rounds can penetrate light pillboxes
• Reasonably accurate at longer ranges when upgraded

Cons:

• "Default" belt contains practice shells which deal far less damage than other ammunition belts
• HEF-I and SAP-I rounds do more puncturing damage compared to other countries' cannons due to possessing lesser amounts of filler
• "Air targets" ammunition belts are less effective against bombers, instead, utilize Stealth or Ground targets ammunition
• Cannons quickly overheat when repeatedly fired for long periods of time
• Painfully inaccurate when stock
• Unlike other cannons, it requires three modifications instead of only one to minimise jamming probability and inaccuracy

History

After the Battle of Britain in 1940, the British Air Ministry realized their eight machine gun armed Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes were obsolete, lacking the punch to take out enemy aircraft during attack runs. So the Royal Air Force decided to arm the majority of their aircraft, including later variants of both the Hurricane and Spitfire designs, with 20 mm cannons. The RAF already had the Hispano Mk.I, a licensed copy of the French Hispano 404, but these drum-fed designs were noted to present problems on the earlier Bristol Beaufighter, where it was hard to replace the drums at night or during manoeuvres. In addition, the Mk.I was tested on the Spitfire and Hurricane where it was known to jam during aerial manoeuvres. The Air Ministry briefly considered that cannons would not be possible and specified that new fighters should be armed with twelve machine guns.

However, Martin-Baker managed to successfully developed a reliable belt-feed for the Hispano which became the Hispano Mk.II. These cannons were first used on the Hurricane and Spitfire in groups of four along with other late war fighters such as the Blackburn Firebrand and Firecrest strike fighters, later models of the Beaufighter, the Austrialian CAC Boomerang fighters, de Havilland Mosquito series of heavy fighters, lead-lease Douglas DB-7 light bombers, Fairey Firefly fighters, the first RAF fighter jet, the Gloster Meteor, the Hurricane's successors the Tempest and the Typhoon, lend-lease North American P-51A Mustangs, and Martin-Baker's own MB.5 prototype.

The Mk.II was originally used in a four gun configuration on fighters, which was also used with the Mk.I on the Westland Whirlwind Mk I, however the outboard guns on Spitfires were found to freeze up at high altitudes. As a result, the RAF began replace the two outboard wing cannons with 4 .303 Brownings or .50 M2 Browning machine guns to complement the two inboard wing-mounted Mk.IIs. The British had feared their industrial capacity would not be enough maintain their supply of cannons so they licensed the design to the United States. While their fears were unfounded, the license resulted in the US developing their own variant of the HS.404 starting with the M1, which would develop into a family of cannons that culminated in the M24A1 used during the Korean War.

Media

Videos

Top 7 Autocannons discusses the Hispano Mk.II (20 mm) at 01:56 - War Thunder Official Channel

See also

• Hispano Mk.I (20 mm)
• Hispano Mk.V (20 mm)

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

Britain aircraft cannons
20 mm	Hispano Mk.I · Hispano Mk.II · Hispano Mk.V · Oerlikon KAD-B
25 mm	ADEN 25
30 mm	ADEN · ADEN Mk.4
40 mm	Rolls-Royce Type BH · Vickers S
47 mm	Vickers P
57 mm	Molins Class M
	Foreign:
20 mm	GI2 (South Africa) · Hispano 404 (France) · M61A1 (USA)
27 mm	Akan m/85 (Sweden) · Mauser BK27 (Germany)
30 mm	M230E-1 (USA)