kelticheart
Charter Member
A good day to everybody! 
Since Bruno released his splendid Spit MkVB/C Trop series,
, I have been puzzled by a detail concerning the armament of the MkVC with four cannons.
All of the WWII books and profiles I have got, describe the the "C" wing Spitfire armament being only of four Hispano 20 mm cannons, yet Bruno's MkVC retains the four .303" machine guns with the four 20 mm cannons. I wondered if that would have not been a tad too heavy for the rather thin Spitfire wing, in terms of sheer weapon weight plus all the necessary ammo rounds.
Moreover, the only B/W pic I have of a flight of Spits MkVC's armed with four cannons over the Adriatic sea, shows, under a magnifying lense, that the four machine guns ports are indeed there. The ports seem to be closed or doped over, the anti-freezing measure adopted on the majority of Allied fighter planes. Could it be that the ports were there without the machine guns inside the wings? It would fit the interchangeable wing philosophy of the MkIX, for example, equipped wih the standard "B" armament of 2 x 20mm cannons plus 4 x .303" machine guns and stubs in place of the second pair of cannons.
Mine is not meant to be criticism, but deep curiosity, since Spitfires equipped with 4 x 20mm cannons, a formidable firepower, were not too common in WWII. Therefore, there is not a lot of info about this Spitfire version out there. As a matter of fact, later marks carried another variation on the theme, with two outer 20 mm Hispano cannons and two lighter American-made .50" Browning machine guns, in place of the inner second pair of cannons, described by war reports as a heavy punch as well. Pictures of this particular weapon arrangement show that the wing leading edge earlier .303" ports aren't there anymore.
Can anybody enlighten me?
Thank you!
KH :ernae:
Since Bruno released his splendid Spit MkVB/C Trop series,
, I have been puzzled by a detail concerning the armament of the MkVC with four cannons.All of the WWII books and profiles I have got, describe the the "C" wing Spitfire armament being only of four Hispano 20 mm cannons, yet Bruno's MkVC retains the four .303" machine guns with the four 20 mm cannons. I wondered if that would have not been a tad too heavy for the rather thin Spitfire wing, in terms of sheer weapon weight plus all the necessary ammo rounds.
Moreover, the only B/W pic I have of a flight of Spits MkVC's armed with four cannons over the Adriatic sea, shows, under a magnifying lense, that the four machine guns ports are indeed there. The ports seem to be closed or doped over, the anti-freezing measure adopted on the majority of Allied fighter planes. Could it be that the ports were there without the machine guns inside the wings? It would fit the interchangeable wing philosophy of the MkIX, for example, equipped wih the standard "B" armament of 2 x 20mm cannons plus 4 x .303" machine guns and stubs in place of the second pair of cannons.
Mine is not meant to be criticism, but deep curiosity, since Spitfires equipped with 4 x 20mm cannons, a formidable firepower, were not too common in WWII. Therefore, there is not a lot of info about this Spitfire version out there. As a matter of fact, later marks carried another variation on the theme, with two outer 20 mm Hispano cannons and two lighter American-made .50" Browning machine guns, in place of the inner second pair of cannons, described by war reports as a heavy punch as well. Pictures of this particular weapon arrangement show that the wing leading edge earlier .303" ports aren't there anymore.
Can anybody enlighten me?
Thank you!
KH :ernae:
KH :ernae: