Best Battle of Britain Aircraft

[comiso90]

It's also a question of tactics.. what do u want to wipe out first, enemy bombers or fighters?

Yes the Hurricane's shot down alot of planes but they were mostly bombers while the spits tangled with fighters.

 

[plan_D]

You should always aim for the bombers, they're the planes that will be causing damage. Yes, the fighters carried the bombers to their targets but the fact remains - the bombers will destroy more aircraft than fighters, if they get through.

Bombers do all the work; bombing airfields, factories, marshall yards, distribution plants - the bombers destroy aircraft before they're made, before they're painted, before they're delivered and before they've taken off.

Always go for the bombers, and always go for the bombers that are heading for their target - not away. The Hurricane/Spitifire combination was great, it would have been a lot better if the Hurricane had its 4 x 20 mm in the BoB - but we can't have everything!

 

[eddie_brunette]

109 for me

 

[Cdat88]

Spitfire for me. Though plan D has a point about the Hurricane being the workhorse bomber hunter. The glamor of the Spit is in the dogfight.

 

[Marcel]

I seem to remember that several sources claim that the story that Hurricanes went for the bombers and Spits for the fighters is a myth. Bombers were always first priority as far as I recall, also for the Spitfires.
Furthermore, quite some BF109's have been shot down by Hurricanes.

 

[Jerry W. Loper]

I seem to remember that several sources claim that the story that Hurricanes went for the bombers and Spits for the fighters is a myth. Bombers were always first priority as far as I recall, also for the Spitfires.
Furthermore, quite some BF109's have been shot down by Hurricanes.

RAF brass did vector Hurricanes to bombers and Spitfires to fighters when possible, because of the slight difference in performance between the Hurricane and the Spitfire Me-109. However, of course it was impossible to keep up such a separation of duties during the confusion of the battle, especially since all single seat German fighters during the BoB were Me-109s, while practically 2/3rds of single seat British fighters were Hurricanes; with those numbers, there weren't enough Spitfires to go around, and it was impossible to prevent Hurricane vs. Me-109 encounters. Fortunately for Britain, Fighter Command's "other" fighter apart from the Spitfire was the Hurricane and NOT the Boulton Paul Defiant, Bristol Blenheim, or Gloster Gladiator.

 

[Negative Creep]

I wonder what would've happened if the Beaufighter was available a few months earlier? With a Spitfire escort they could've torn into bomber streams almost at will

 

[Hobilar]

As mentioned before, the Bristol Beaufughter was not involved during the Battle of Britain. The first five Beaufighter IFs were handed over to the R.A.F. on July 27, 1940. These were followed on August 3rd by a further five.

No.25 and 29 Squadrons each received a single Beaufighter on September 2, 1940. No.29 Squadron becoming operational with the type on September 17, 1940 with No.25 Squadron following on October 10th.

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

It's funny, if there were no such thing as a German bombers able to fly to Britain, would enemy fighters have made much of an air impact in BOB agains't Allied fighters and targets?

 

[Freebird]

I wonder what would've happened if the Beaufighter was available a few months earlier? With a Spitfire escort they could've torn into bomber streams almost at will

Yes and I wonder how the Boulton-Paul Defiant can outvote the Beaufighter! ( 6 for the Beau vs. 7 for the Defiant)

 

[Freebird]

As mentioned before, the Bristol Beaufughter was not involved during the Battle of Britain. The first five Beaufighter IFs were handed over to the R.A.F. on July 27, 1940. These were followed on August 3rd by a further five.

No.25 and 29 Squadrons each received a single Beaufighter on September 2, 1940. No.29 Squadron becoming operational with the type on September 17, 1940 with No.25 Squadron following on October 10th.

Do you have any data on their combat from the fall/winter of '40-'41? Were they involved in any combat with Me 109's?

 

[HoHun]

Hi Negative,

>I wonder what would've happened if the Beaufighter was available a few months earlier? With a Spitfire escort they could've torn into bomber streams almost at will

I wonder how the Bf 110 would be rated had it flown for the RAF ... powerful cannon armament, useful loiter time to avoid the need for a last-minute scramble like the Spitfire and the Hurricane, it with an escort, it could have torn into bomber streams almost at will And with the Luftwaffe Me 109s seriously limited in combat time, disengaging from them after the attack on the bombers wouldn't be all that difficult ...

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

 

[Hakenkreuz]

The Bf 109E was only marginally superior to the Hurricane, and the Spitfire wasfully its equal,if not its superior incertain key areas. The 109 had a higher speed at high altitude, better dive speed, and a fuel injected engine giving the 109 ability to perform neg-G manoeuvres without the engine cutting out. The Spitfire was faster at medium heights and slightly more manoeuvrable,although it could not simply dive away from an opponent, as the 109 could. The 109 had heavier armament. The 109 was easier to handle than the Spitfire thus making it better beginers aircraft and more kills. Thats why i vote for the 109. PS i`m also a Brit.

 

[milford maniac]

The Hurricane gets my vote every time; it was the work horse of Fighter Command. It did what it says on the tin, not elegant like the spitfire, but it did destroy more Luftwaffe aircraft, which was the whole point of the battle.

 

[Heinz]

For sure, the hurricane was my pick too. Though I consider it as elegent as the spitfire because the Hurricane has very clean lines in my opion.

 

[Hobilar]

Do you have any data on their combat from the fall/winter of '40-'41? Were they involved in any combat with Me 109's?

The first of twenty Beaufighter confirmed kills was achieved by Flt. Lt. John Cunningham of No.604 Squadron on the night of 19-20 November 1940. As a radar equipped night fighter it is extremely unlikely that it would have encountered a short range Day-fighter such as a Bf.109E.

 

['Lil'tyger]

I WENT WITH THE "SPITFIRE" BUT THE JUNKER-88 WASN'T TO BAD EITHER 8)

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

And you really felt like that had to be in CAPS?

 

[Jerry W. Loper]

Which aircraft do you think was the best during the Battle of Britain?

I have a feeling the Hurricane and Spitfire will run away with this but it will still be interesting to see.

Whether by design or lucky accident, the Hurricane and Spitfire complemented each other very well in the Battle as a sort of "high-low" mix, with the Hurricane being strong on numbers but a little short on performance, and the Spitfire the opposite. Sydney Camm, the Hurricane's designer, said he could have gotten better performance from the Hurricane by tweaking it a bit, but realized that the RAF needed numbers; according to Richard J. Overy's book The Air War, 1939-45, in 1939 the RAF could produce 2.5 Hurricanes using the same number of man-hours it took to produce 1 Spitfire. For a variety of reasons, RAF's Fighter Command began sending Hurricanes after bombers and Spitfires after fighters when possible, but the Hurricane proved itself able to combat the Me-109 when necessary, which was fortunate, considering the relative number of Hurricanes, Spitfires, and Me-109s participating in the Battle.

 

[kool kitty89]

The main advantage of the Hurricane was that it was 2.5x as easy to produce. Would you rather have 5 Hurricanes or 2 Spitfires?


It could turn tighter than either the Spit or 109, and had better instantaneous tern rate. Sustained turn would probably be no better than the other's though, due to worse power loading and higher drag. But, importantly, the Hurricane would be abble to stay out of the 109's guns in a turn.


For survivabillity the Hurricane would be better as long as the nose tank had self sealing. W/out it that could be a very bad situation, and a hit there could splash gas back into the cockpit and with a fire would be a very unpleasant way to die. (and if you made it out with burns you'd be in a hell of alot of pain for quite a while recovering) This spot would be particularly volnerable to bomber fire.

It had a reputation of being a tough a/c that could take considerable damage to take down.

The Hurricane was much more forgiving than the Spit and much easier for a novice to fly.



If a 109 got into a turning fight with a Hurricane and both pilots knew what they were doing, the Hurricane would win or the 109 would either break off or change tactics. (though there weren't many offensive options left) The 109 would easily be able to break off in a dive, even with a realitively short one. It just wouldn't be a good idea to turnfight with the Hurricane, that was it's main performance advantage in a fight in this arena.