Boulton-Paul Defiant

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Nice wee assessment John, Just one thing though, from post#9:

Primary users Royal Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
Polish Air Force
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Out of the above, only the RAF used the Defiant. Foreign squadrons within the RAF operated it, but these were based in the UK and fell under the overall jurisdiction of the RAF, and the Royal Navy used it as a target tug, as did the USAAF.

A Defiant cockpit, showing that the pilot had a gun button: he could fire the guns if they were fixed to fire forward.
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A function not used, I don't think. The guns facing forward were at a minimum elevation of 19 degrees above the horizontal and of course, there is no gunsight. The guns could be lowered to fire below 19 degrees, but since the guns were not synchronised with the propeller the pilot ran the risk of shooting it. There was a switch on the turret, which enabled the gunner to switch operation between himself and the pilot, but I've read that in practise this function was disconnected.
 
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Hmmm...it would be surprising if the capability wasn't used ever. After all, it's a similar basic principle to the German schragemusik...just fly along the underbelly of the bomber and let rip. I'd have thought such tactics would be quite effective, particularly at night.
 
buffnut453 said:
I'd have thought such tactics would be quite effective, particularly at night.
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Apparently officialdom also thought so; in mid 1940, during a meeting discussing night fighter requirements, AVM Philip Joubert de La Ferte said that a trainable turret on a night fighter was an asset for that very reason. Eventually, F.18/40 for a fixed gun multi seat night fighter was altered to include a gun turret.
 
410 squadron RCAF operated defiants from july 41 to may 42, looks like no victories with them
 
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