RAF guns and ammunition

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

Notes on Early Spifire armament( I) :

Machineguns:


Extract from: Armament of British Aircraft 1909-1939 H. King /Putnam books
 

Attachments

  • 1.jpg
    90.5 KB · Views: 634
  • 2.jpg
    101.5 KB · Views: 612
Notes on Early Spifire armament (II) :

Hispano gun in Mark I
:


Early installations...and troubles.
 

Attachments

  • 3.jpg
    24.5 KB · Views: 611
  • 4.jpg
    164.6 KB · Views: 615
  • 5.JPG
    13.9 KB · Views: 613

The 11mm Gras-Vickers was actually a French development. They had already converted some of their Hotchkiss M1914 to the 11x59R Gras cartridge (which was the old French army rifle round replaced by the 8mm Lebel) for balloon-busting from the ground. They were already using the .303 Vickers as their standard synch gun, so they modified the Vickers to take the same ammo and put it into service. The US was very interested and acquired some. The British became interested late in the war, but too late to get any into action.
 
You welcome

A little more on 37mm gun

In October 1918, the COW gun was installed in the rear cockpit of an Airco D.H.4, fixed and aimed up. The angle of the installation in at least one ( A2168 ) was about 80 degrees. The gun fired through a hole in the upper wing. The idea was to use this weapon against the large German bombers and Zeppelins, and after some reinforcement to prevent blast damage, testing was successfull. Three D.H.4s with COW guns were put into service. They carried a crew of two; the gunner in the aft cockpit not only loaded the weapon – the breech was inconveniently close to the cockpit floor – but also fired it on a signal from the pilot, who aimed with a ring-and-bead sight. Though two were sent to France, they did not see any combat before the war ended. (A2168 is recorded as flying a sortie against German Gotha bombers in August 1917, but that was presumably still without the COW gun.)

The french however were by far more entuasiatic about it and used in several Voisin airplanes.
 
Last edited:
Schräge Musik isnt german: The F29/27 specifications and fighters:

This called for an aircraft armed with the 37mm Coventry Ordnance Works (COW) cannon that had been evolved during World War I and was thought to have potential as an anti-bomber weapon. The COW gun was to be mounted at an upward angle of at least 45° from the horizontal, with the idea that the fighter would approach enemy bombers from below and astern.

Both Westland and Vickers submitted designs:

Vickers Type 161:
 

Attachments

  • 2.JPG
    60.4 KB · Views: 541
  • 1.JPG
    65 KB · Views: 541
Last edited:
I bet this is common knowledge (is it?), but Spitfire Mk.I's .303 machineguns were targeted so that they all shot in the area of 2 feet in diameter at 250 yards. This meant that one second burst sent 10 lb of metal to that area, if well adjusted and fired. -Robert Jackson: Spitfire (book)

This information changed my view of Spitfire's "ineffective" armament.
 
The armament of the RAF fighters was initially harmonised at 400 yards - not because they expected the shooting to be done at that distance, but because at shorter distances this provided a spread of fire which could cover the fuselage and engines of a twin-engined bomber. They reduced the harmonisation range to 250 yards when they found out that they needed to maximise concentration of fire to have any effect. Even so, some bombers escaped with hundreds of bullet holes in them.
 
Experimental 40mm emplacement in B-17

An coastal command Boeing was modified with an Bristol b-16 nose turrte for firing the heavy Vickers Class S for antisubmarine work. The installation and testing was completed in early 1944 but apparently wasnt used in action.
 

Attachments

  • bristol b-16 1.JPG
    18.8 KB · Views: 379
  • bristol b-16 2.JPG
    24.4 KB · Views: 357
  • bristol b-16 3.JPG
    52.2 KB · Views: 357
Regarding superiority of Browning over Vickers.
Long ago I read that the Japanese fixed a major problem that plagued the Vickers (breaking firing? pin? spring) by making their spring out of three pieces of wire twisted together before being heat treated and coiled to form the spring.
IF correct that spring problem MAY have been why the Browning was chosen.
 

Users who are viewing this thread