If the Germans were aware of the T-34 and KV-1

Deleted member 1487

Using the modern-day ammo for ww2 thought excercises skews the comparisons quite a bit. There was plenty of ww2 ammo that would've made possible a powerful, but still not too awkward airborne AT cannon. Eg. Soviet 23mm, French/Japanese and Soviet 25 mm, US 28mm (1.1 in). The VYa-23 was historically used as primarily airborne gun. With enough of money, Tungsten and foresight, the autocannon based around the German
28/20 mm ammo would've been amazing.
28/20 ammo?
 

Deleted member 1487

For the squeze-bore PzB (light AT gun)
Oh, that squeeze bore concept didn't work out so well in practice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.8_cm_sPzB_41
Not sure it would work well as an autocannon, but it did penetrate well at short ranges.

But for 25mm guns the Germans captured a lot of them:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25_mm_Hotchkiss_anti-tank_gun

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25_mm_Hotchkiss_anti-aircraft_gun

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25_mm_automatic_air_defense_gun_M1940_(72-K)
 
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Deleted member 1487

Going over the Hotchkiss 25mm AA gun it seems to be pretty ideal. Smaller than the MK101, lighter, and with similar overall performance (though lower cyclic rate), it might well be just able to fit in the ME109 motor cannon mount in the way the MK103M was supposed to. With APCR ammo it would be somewhat worse than the MK103 in AP, but would have much better AP than the 20mm cannon and better behind the armor effects and probably require only one. PLUS it would be a long range, highly effective bomber killing weapon for the Me109 to be able to fire outside the range of return fire of B17s, as it had a higher muzzle velocity than the MG151/20.
 
The French 25 mm AA round looks to me as ideal for air-to-air work - 250 g shell fired at excellent 900 m/s, so perhaps they might design a gun around the round. The AA gun proper will be a problematic fit for the Bf 1-0-nine, due to the gas port system, but no problems for Stuka or twin-engined Henschel.
BTW, the PzB 41 worked as advertised, lack of Tungsten notwithstanding.
 

Deleted member 1487

The French 25 mm AA round looks to me as ideal for air-to-air work - 250 g shell fired at excellent 900 m/s, so perhaps they might design a gun around the round.
Yes, it sounds like it would have been the answer for the range issue around bomber killing.

The AA gun proper will be a problematic fit for the Bf 1-0-nine, due to the gas port system, but no problems for Stuka or twin-engined Henschel.
BTW, the PzB 41 worked as advertised, lack of Tungsten notwithstanding.
I'm sure there was a reason they made nearly 3000 of them, but I'm not seeing it as a great air to ground weapon.
 
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Subject to a viable anti-tank motorcannon being suitable, and catching Ernst's fancy.
 
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