Beaufighter - Wing Armament Details

[ronl]

Does anyone have any armament publications or related information for the Bristol Beaufighter that they might be able to post? I am particularly interested in any detailed drawings or pictures of the installation of the .303 machine guns in the wings - showing the ammunition and machine gun set up, and how the expended cases and links were ejected from the wing. Some versions of Beaufighters have one ejection slot under each machine gun, while others have two slots under each gun. Just wondering why the change and when it happened. Any information or pictures/diagrams that anyone could post would be greatly appreciated.

Also, what was the ammuniton load per .303 gun? It looks like there might have been two boxes per gun - and I think I read around 1,000 rounds per gun somewhere.

Thanks.

Ronl

 

[Kingscoy]

Mad Dogs and Englishmen: Bristol Beaufighter Again

Hi,
Attached pics came from the blog stated above. I know almost nothing of the Beaufighter but perphaps they are of some help...or maybe you already have seen them. Did a quick search on the web using Beaufighter Wing Armament

Cheers,
Sander

 

[ronl]

Thanks Sander. I have seen those pictures before, but they are both very useful. The drawing on the left shows the 6 gun .303 arrangement in early Beaufighers (note the 60 round cannon ammunition drums - later changed to belt feed). In early Beaufighters, it appears as if there was one chute under each gun to eject both the expended cases and links. In later Beaufighters, although I can't confirm this because I have seen pictures of later Beaufighters with both arrangements, there are two slots under each gun, which I presume are set up so that one slot is for the links and the other for the cases. The Beaufighter Mk X on display at RAF Hendon has the two slots under each .303 gun. If you google this aircraft, you will see the details of the slots quite easily. Many Beaufighter Squadrons removed the guns altogether and installed fuel tanks in place of the guns. The picture on the right is a Mk 21 Beaufighter. The Australians replace the six .303s in the wings with four .5 inch guns - two in each wing. The delails of the slots for the guns is contained in this picture - with a separate slot for the links and the cases for each gun. If someone could shed some light on reason for the difference in the one slot vs the two slots for the .303s in the Beaufighter, I would be really interested in reading it. Thanks.