Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
Every Spitfire and Hurricane that fought in the BoB used tracer ammunition.For air combat British fighters for the most part didn't use tracers.
As far as intimidation goes. In daylight tracers are more visible from the rear than they are from the front.
HiEvery Spitfire and Hurricane that fought in the BoB used tracer ammunition.
Every Spitfire and Hurricane that fought in the BoB used tracer ammunition.
By the way, what color tracers were used in WWII? Did everyone use the same color? I think we now have red and green tracers and that varies with the using country.
Regardless of what you want to call them they were used as spotter or tracer rounds allowing the pilot gunner whoever a degree of visual reference as to where his rounds are going, it wasn't until the improvement in sighting equipment such as the gyro stabilised gunsight that tracers fell out of favour, up to then tracers were better than having no reference point at all.The terminology is what will trip people up here. The rounds you're referring to are what I mentioned above; Early British incendiary rounds (the 1939-40 type) burned as they flew and looked somewhat like tracers but their use for aiming purposes was strongly warned against.'
Strictly speaking these are incendiary rounds -- and as Dowding (via MikeMeech) described 'gave a distinct smoke-tracer effect'. Dowding somewhat muddies the waters here, along with many anecdotes from the period.
These rounds ... officially Cartridge, Incendiary, .303-inch B. Mark IV ... aren't tracer rounds but you can read them described as 'smoke tracers', 'incendiary tracers', or just 'tracers' by those involved.
This round is distinct from actual tracers, which use a firework composition burning out of the base of the bullet. The smoke effect from the Mk.IV Incendiary was (for the most part) an undesirable side effect and once the type was replaced in late 1940 / early 1941 by the Mk.VI 'de Wilde' Incendiary type British fighter bursts were 'invisible'.
Regardless of what you want to call them they were used as spotter or tracer rounds allowing the pilot gunner whoever a degree of visual reference as to where his rounds are going, it wasn't until the improvement in sighting equipment such as the gyro stabilised gunsight that tracers fell out of favour, up to then tracers were better than having no reference point at all.
Good point! That always shows up in the comic books, and most of the time in the box art.Couldn't you tell if they were firing because of the muzzle flash?