Since we had the Allies hedgehog weaponry, it seemed only fair to include the Russian's hedgehog as well. Used by the Red Army, a Tupolev Tu 2 high speed bomber was loaded with 88 PPSH like machine guns. Due to the limited range of the guns, the aircraft flew at low altitudes and would open its doors and fire the weapon when over the target. How effective it was is unknown, as the guns would empty with only a few seconds of continuous fire, and aiming would have been less than ideal. However, delivering something in the region of 900 or so rounds per second means that anyone on the ground would be well advised to get out of the way, and that whatever it did hit would have been made a mess of. It's almost like a forerunner to the modern concept of electronically triggered guns, which can achieve phenomenal firing rates - thousands of rounds per second - and destroy their targets in many instances simply by the sheer mass of lead arriving there at high speed.   |