WI: More Widespread Use of the Becker 20 mm Autocannon

Delta Force

Banned
The Becker 20 Type M2 mm autocannon began development in 1913 and first entered production in 1916. It was an advanced design for its time, with its weight of 30 kilograms comparable to medium and heavy machine guns of the era and the ability to feed from a 10 or 15 round curved box magazine. Despite interest from the Imperial German Air Service and Imperial German Army, only a few hundred units were produced, although the design later evolved into the very successful Oerlikon 20 mm autocannon.

How might the war have changed if Becker production had been increased to allow for more widespread use? Could it have allowed Central Powers aircraft to out-range their Entente counterparts and provided a good anti-tank weapon?
 
Could the Becker have helped to neutralize the Entente advantage in armored vehicles?

It was a 20x70mm case
Beckertype2wprojectile.jpg

Not set for high velocity, 1600fps
 
I think the 20mm autocannon in WWI was a brilliant solution looking for a problem. Being half cannon and half machine gun, it was too light to be used as artillery, especially against the heavily fortified lines of trench warfare and as a machinegun it was overkill against soldiers and even contemporary stick-and-tissue warplanes. You'd willingly switch back to a machine gun with half the caliber but twice the firing rate. The only thing it would be good for is if you somehow get it past the frontlines where it could wreck havok on the (unarmored) trains and motor trucks that make up the enemies supply lines. - which is what they did in WWII when they had airplanes sturdy enough to carry them.
 
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