Originally Posted by
Asturias56
SAS - astonished they were still planning "Primary armament was to become an array of 6 x 12.7mm (.50 caliber) machine guns mounted in the wings (a reduction from the 8 x 12.7mm machine guns in the original P-47 Thunderbol)" so late in the war - almost all Erupean fighters had switched to a mix of MG's and Cannon by about 1941. MG's just didn't hack it
I think you will find you have picked up the wrong end of the stick - history does not support your thinking.
fighter v fighter 50 cal was an order of magnitude better than canon - not only rate of fire or the amount of lead heading to the target but also the speed of the bullet!
Slow firing, slow velocity cannon with a few 303's that are ineffectual were poor weapons trying to cover the inadequacies of each other in an air/air fight.
You will find the reduction down to 6 50cals had been done in a lot of P-47s operationally. Enough hitting power with 6 - better to have more performance.