[aap1966]

I was talking to an Australian WWII spitfire pilot.

Spitfire canon didn't have the muzzle velocity to penetrate the armour on German tanks.
His solution was to put the aircraft into a dive and pull out to level flight at 50 feet, the extra velocity from the dive would then allow the canon rounds to penetrate the armour if fired close enough to the target.
He came up with that tactic in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, and he said it worked well. He did say by the time he was flying in Italy "with the trees and everything, pulling out at 50 feet got a bit hairy at times."

He was 23 at the time.

A better man than I will every be, and a better man than almost any I have ever met.