"Tanks are damn hard targets. With all that armor you can't count on guns to kill one. Bombs work well, but without a direct hit you may as well piss on him. Rockets work as long as you really nail the guy with several at once. And for the sake of Mars don't fly over the tank after you blast him!" Soup cans? ©
Delta6
Unknown unit commander
Yes, soup cans. Or more precisely, tomato soup cans. Think about the color of tomato soup and think of the inside of a tank after it gets hit by a bomb. Both come out to be roughly the same color. Hey, don't look at me! The infantry cooked up that one; most pilots call tanks "turtles" because they have such a hard shell. But no matter what they get called, armored ground vehicles are a pain to kill off. Below you'll probably notice that vehicles get called "tanks" or "vehicles"; on this page they both effectively mean the same thing. You're going to kill a gun-toting box that's moving around and being driven by another person. Tanks, vehicles, half-tracks, jeeps; they're all valid targets!
Guns are what every pilot has at his disposal no matter what type of aircraft he's driving around. Naturally some guns are useless against tanks; namely the .30 cal variety. Anything bigger than .50 cal will damage a tank if you put the bullets in the right place. Tracks, engines, pintle guns and maybe a wounded crew can all result from a gun pass. Probably the best place to start is with a side-on pass at the tank's tracks. Come at him from a fairly low altitude, somewhere around 300 ft, and start firing as soon as you can get a bead on him. Aim for the lower portion of the vehicle to knock his tracks loose or flatten a tire. After the pass, pull up and away from the target; never over-fly the guy if you can help it. He's got at least one gun he can point at you. More than one pilot has been killed by a panzer's .30 cal by flying over the guy after a pass. Once you've made the first pass he'll be on alert for you to come back. Even if the turret gun has been knocked out he'll try getting a bead on you with any gun he's got.
Attacking any vehicle head-on is a really dumb move; that's where the armor is thickest. Plus nearly every tank has a .30 cal hull gun for use against infantry mounted right up front. You can't knock that gun out because of the heavy armor, so stick to making side or rear quarter passes at him. Remember to pull up and away so you don't fly over him. He might be playing possum, waiting for you to get low and slow so he can open up with a perfectly functioning machine gun. Just because the gun is a .30 cal doesn't mean he can't make that nice shiny aircraft an over-priced cheese grater. Start out with a single pass against a track, pull out and away from him to get well out of range, then come around for a second pass. Your second pass should focus on either his other track/tire or his engine. Your sole objective is to cause any damage you can.
The average vehicle driver won't stick around long if you've made it impossible for him to move or shoot back. He'll ditch and come back with a new vehicle, probably a flak track (anti-aircraft gun on a tank or half-track chassis). Dodging those suckers is in part three. For now, we'll move on to high-explosives and how you can kill a tank with 'em.
High-explosive mayhem
Rockets vs vehicles is a fairly fun subject that brings to mind the telltale POP when they explode. Naturally you can't just make milk-run after milk-run to unload rockets on one guy who's sitting still. That's how bombers do it, and they have a special sight that helps 'em nail those targets. You need one thing: practice. Try firing one rocket at the ground, and then putting your other rockets within five yards of the first crater. That's about the accuracy required to pummel any vehicle with a rocket. Of course, you could make life a living hell for the guy. Do it vertically.
Fly right over the top of the guy at around ten thousand feet, roll in a vertical dive, chop power, and start launching. Don't volley all your rockets off, fire them one at a time and watch for the impact. Adjust your aim and shoot again. In all it takes longer to read this than it does to actually pull the maneuver off. If your airspeed gets too high go ahead and commence a pull-out and go-around for another pass. But why come in vertically? Most vehicle-mounted weapons can't point straight up, and those that can aren't too easy to aim accurately. Diving also increases your accuracy because gravity isn't pulling the rocket off course: as it would if you were flying close to the ground and firing one. Which brings us to the other type of firing pass.
Flying low-level in an attempt to hit any vehicle is nuts. Between terrain, enemy fire, fighters, and the odd triple-A gun you'll be facing far too many problems for any accurate firing pass. Now if the vehicle is out playing scout for someone, that's another horse completely! If you manage to spot a vehicle out snooping around near a friendly field, don't let him know you're around. This means no low passes, no circling at low altitude, and no saying "hi" by dropping a bomb near him. Keep it quiet, stay some ways away, and watch where he goes. Of course, you could just attack; most pilots would. If you're going to out and out kill the guy, come in from behind and salvo off rockets in pairs. Between the twin darts going his way, and the fact he's probably concentrating on driving, you might nail him. Should you miss switch straight to guns and make a straffing pass. Trying to fire rockets at 350mph in a dive against a moving target isn't easy. Let alone trying to do it twice when you're practically on top of the guy.
With bombs it's another story entirely. Bombs need space to arm, plenty of room for the resulting blast, and require a lot of skill on your part to dump accurately. So like rockets you need to practice hitting a target consistently. Bomb truck convoys, trains, and anything else you find that moves around. After you can hit a target repeatedly, or at least get real close, start going after tanks. They're slow, which makes your job easier, and they require an accurate hit to kill, which improves your skill. Up for a challenge? Try killing one of those M8 scout cars when he's running at a good clip. That'll give you a fit until you learn the lead required to smack someone going that fast. Taking out flak tracks has got to be the most fun you can have as a jabo-driver.
Flak tracks, by their very nature, require a stable platform in order to hit an aircraft. Unless the gunner is a complete idiot he'll park that thing and attempt to slap every single aircraft within range. But he's parked, which makes for a near perfect target for a vertical dive-bombing run. Remember, he can't aim all that well with the gun pointing straight up and bombs are the most accurate when dropped vertically. Just get close enough and he'll vanish in a huge cloud of dust.
Flak Tracks
Dodging these pesky little toads is a serious pain in the butt. Once the triple-A guns at a field go down some chutzpah will come screaming out of a field in some sort of anti-aircraft vehicle. Killing them means using tactics instead of simple gun passes or repeated suicide runs in a jabo. Think! You've got a vehicle that requires no movement for the best gun accuracy and he can only look in one direction. Naturally some are easier to attack than others. An Ostwind has this huge gun shield that partially blocks his view, while an M-16 MGC has a similar shield. Both give you a blind spot to come in from, not to mention you can attack to either side or come in from behind.
Take a hard look at the guy to get a rough idea where that turret is pointed. Or, should you have a friend around, ask the guy to make a fairly distant pass at the offender. Usually any sucker (read: dweeb) who's desperate for a kill will open up, showing you exactly where he's looking. All that's left for you to do is roll in and plaster the idiot. Say you don't have a friend around, though. What then? Well, now you're in trouble. You can either claw for some altitude and make a vertical attack, swing in low with gobs of speed, or use a combination of the two. Generally, the faster you move the less accurate he'll be. Though I'd consider a solo attack on any flak track a bad idea. The odds of him planting a 37mm HE round or several dozen .50 cal slugs in your plane are rather high. Especially once he knows you're around.
By using two aircraft you double the number of aircraft he has to watch. Plus you'll force him into acting against an attacker. Say he's watching you and fires off a shot or two, trying to get a simpleton's kill. You can tell your bud to attack him from the rear. Given that any flak track is lightly armored a quick gun or rocket pass will cause damage. You might even cripple the guy into dumping his ride and getting a new one. As you might imagine, this game of "whack a mole" with vehicles can get old in a hurry. Once you've more or less mastered the technique it's trivial to plaster a dozen tanks per sortie.
Tactics
Here's a short list of general pointers to give you an edge against the ground pounders. Scribble 'em down on a post-it and stick it to your monitor next time you go a-hunting for toads.
1) Stay fast: the faster you move the harder you are to hit.
2) Use the terrain to your advantage. He can't hit what he can't see.
3) Don't give your presence away. He'll be dead before he knows what happened.
4) Never fly over the target! Tanks playing possum can kill you in short order.
5) Friends make great bait.
6) Use the right weapon for the job and don't waste shots.
7) A thousand pound bomb through the roof hatch turns tanks into soup cans.