M4 Sherman vs Tiger

[Grumbler]

No need to look, I remember that study also. It was flawed. The pilots doing the study were new pilots taken out of the OTU before going off to combat flying. The HVAR is extremely accurate in the hands of a pilot that has a lot of experience with them. There were no sighting systems available for the HVAR, so it was a matter of what us ami's call "Kentucky windage". In order to get hits, it required a LOT of practice and a LOT of raockets.
You guys never really had the stocks in rockets, petrol or the time to let a pilot shoot a few dozen of them in practice. The 9th AF did and did.
My father had 5" HVAR on the Patrol Bomber (PV-2) he flew in during the war (late 44 and early 45) and after. They would never land with their rockets, but when they got back to the base would shoot them at a designated target to keep the pilots in practice.
BTW, there would only be deflection on a tank if the pilot wanted it. It doesn't matter how high up you are when you shoot, those bullets are going to get back to earth. To many people think that straffing attacks were done at 50 feet off the deck. They get that idea from hollywood. The Manual I have (for the F4F) says ground attacks should be done from overhead with a pullout no lower then 1500 feet. You cannot get any visual excitement out of that with the camera, so in the movies the fighter comes roaring in a treetop level ala 'Saving Private Ryan'. In the real world flying much above stall speed at 100 feet is extremely dangerous, which is why most air forces proscribe it. Add the factors of target and AA guns and it's easy to see why the pilots ( who ALL wanted to go back to base and get a cold one) would make overhead diving attacks and pull up while still beyond small arms fire ( hopefully).
As far as the Whittmann controversy goes, IIRC, the #5 Tiger was Whitmann's and it was hit by a HVAR on the rear turret ring, which lifted the turret up a little . It was sitting cocked in it's basket. It also had several holes in it from a 17 Lbr. Now who got in the first shot no one will ever know. I tend to think it was the Typhoon, just because Michael was a canny ol' bird and I don't see Corporal Brown ( that was the fella, right?) geting into the position he got on Germany's crack tank crew while alive and well. On the other hand, just because Whittman and Schmidt (His gunner, I think) had killed the last few hundred tank crews that had tried to get a kill shot on them doesn't mean they couldn't screw up that one time it took.
I have the book on Micael someplace. Prolly in storage.
Anyway, this whole issue has been going on for 60 years now, and I don't think it will ever be resolved. Unless of course time travel gets invented, in which case it will not have that high a priority. I don't think anyone will change their minds on the question either.