Air-to-Air Combat

The main weapons in air-to-air combat were machine guns and cannons. The Spitfire fighter was armed with eight wing-mounted machine guns; an

Me-109 had two machine guns and twin cannons; and a P-51 Mustang was equipped with six machine guns.

Fighter-bombers carried small bombs and rockets as well as guns. German fighters fired salvos of air-to-air rockets into formations of U. S. bombers. Allied fighter-bombers used rockets against ground targets, such as railroad trains and road convoys, during the 1944 battles in Normandy, France. Extra-fast airplanes such as the British Mosquito fighter-bomber flew without defensive armament, relying on speed to evade the enemy.