AT Gun Armed Hurricanes In the ME

[MIflyer]

Here is a short film showing the Hurricanes in action:


View: https://archive.org/details/gov.archives.arc.39183

 

[fubar57]

 

[Peter Gunn]

Man, talk about grass cutting, some of those passes were LOW...

 

[MIflyer]

Good thing there weren't no grass!

One interesting thing was that the guns fired one at a time. You'd think that would throw them off the target a bit..

 

[Milosh]

The .303s were used for target acquisition/ranging before the 40mm were fired.

 

[Greyman]

One interesting thing was that the guns fired one at a time. You'd think that would throw them off the target a bit..

Only if there was a stoppage. The gun-firing button fires both 40-mm guns.

Regarding the .303s, while I wouldn't be surprised if there's an anecdote or two of pilots using them for sighting, they weren't supposed to be used in that manner. Their primary purpose was to ignite flowing petrol from tanks/containers holed by the cannon shot.

 

[Greyman]

Man, talk about grass cutting, some of those passes were LOW...

Squadron Leader Allan J Simpson DFC, CD:
They were doing well, and went back to the killing ground again and again. McPhee* was out to beat Hillier's record. Our rule was originally: 'one attack per sortie, then go home before they get wise to our tactics'. The element of surprise. After all, the odds were high enough against us with one attack; we were few in number, and couldn't waste our resources.

But pickings were good that day, and I have reason to suspect that the rule was broken. McPhee was coming in on a tank with about ten feet of altitude, and all of a sudden he saw one of the sprogs directly over his head, engrossed in the same target and losing altitude as he pressed home his attack. Mac had to make a choice. He had insufficient room to turn, although some might have tried it in desperation. If he pulled up, he would collide with him. The sprog was going to get that tank anyway.

It was simple. Either he and the sprog would be killed, or else he alone. Two pilots and two aircraft, or one pilot and one aircraft.

So he nosed into the ground voluntarily, leaving a widow and two sons in Kenya. He ought to have received the VC posthumously. But the story was not told at the regular debriefing.

It was later on that the Army Liaison Officer saw the sprog sitting on the tail-plane of his aircraft weeping. From the thousands of details his eyes had seen that day, and the relatively few his mind could reconstruct, the memory of the fleeting form of Mac's wing below him told him the horrible truth. And from his unofficial story we were able to reconstruct the process by which Mac must have reached a mighty important decision in a split-second. The only decision a man that brave could make.

* 'Mac'/McPhee is Flight Lieutenant Stanley Robert Fairbairn-Mcphee, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

 

[Glider]

I wonder what the Russians would have done with these. If the Ju87 AT could survive in Russia there can be little doubt that the Hurricane could have been very handy. The Tempest was tested with the 40mm and I would be surprised if the Typhoon wasn't

 

[Greyman]

The USSR received a bunch of Hurricane IId and IV and were very impressed with the accuracy that could be achieved - but no armour piercing ammunition was received so it wasn't used in combat as far as I know.

Tempest was tested with the 47-mm Class P gun. I don't think they ever tested the 40-mm Class 'S' with the Tempest.

The Mustang Mk.I was, however.

 

[Glider]

The USSR received a bunch of Hurricane IId and IV and were very impressed with the accuracy that could be achieved - but no armour piercing ammunition was received so it wasn't used in combat as far as I know.

Tempest was tested with the 47-mm Class P gun. I don't think they ever tested the 40-mm Class 'S' with the Tempest.

The Mustang Mk.I was, however.

You have to wonder about the idiocy of the person who decided not to send AP ammo. What did they expect the Russians to do with them, fire paint pellets

 

[Greyman]

There could be thousands of rounds at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Not sure.

 

[fastmongrel]

but no armour piercing ammunition was received so it wasn't used in combat as far as I know.

What the Soviets said about Lend Lease equipment should be taken with several pounds of salt. Politics before truth.

 

[MIflyer]

What the Soviets said about Lend Lease equipment should be taken with several pounds of salt

The friend of mine who was a Polish Army POW in WWII related an incident that occurred after his 2nd escape, after he had joined up with the US Army as a guide and interpreter. They met some Red Army units, and there was one Soviet who was driving a American made Jeep. He asked him, "How do you like this American Jeep?" The man replied. "Is not American. Is Soviet made." My friend pointed out the American markings and instrumentation. The Soviet soldier replied. "That is because we ship these vehicles to the Americans. They need such gauges. We Russians are smarter and do not need them."

Did the Russian really believe that crap?

I recall a letter to a US modeling magazine in the mid-90's in which a model kit enthusiast in Ukraine asked to exchange some of their kits for kits of American made equipment of the type used by the USSR in WWII, saying, "That equipment is still remembered fondly here, as being of excellent quality." The grandchildren or great-grandchildren of the Russians who believed that nonsense knew the truth.

 

[J.A.W.]

You have to wonder about the idiocy of the person who decided not to send AP ammo. What did they expect the Russians to do with them, fire paint pellets

& the opposite was true - but opposite - with the British 2pdr/40mm tank guns, solid AP shot only supplied,
which was of limited facility - for many potential/needful targets.