I’ve been playing a lot of War Thunder lately and it seems to be a common tactic to shoot your guns on your aircraft if you are going to fast when trying to land. For some aircraft it works pretty effectively and I was wondering if this was actually a tactic employed in WW2. I’d assume it probably wouldn’t be since there would be a chance of hitting someone on the group or doing damage to something where ever your bullets would’ve landed, but maybe I’m wrong.
Firing machine guns over your own airfield was never done deliberately in WWII to my knowledge. It's quite dangerous both to any ground crew on the airfield and friendly civilians or troops outside the airfield. I have read anecdotes of accidental discharge of machine guns (especially during carrier landings) that caused casualties or damage.
WWII aircraft had devices like flaps and landing gear to attain safe landing speeds that were much more effective at slowing an aircraft down than the recoil of the guns. Also a pilot can slow an aircraft down over the field by pitching the nose up and increasing the angle of attack.
Lastly, discharging the aircraft guns is wasteful. WWII airfields were often at the end of long supply lines. Every bullet has to travel from a factory in the rear areas all the way to the front, wherever it might be. Ground crew have to reload the guns if they are fired. Bullets wasted today means supply tonnage that isn't available tomorrow.
Your intuition that this technique is an artifact of the game and not a historical technique is correct.