Von Richthofen's guns from his plane. Has to be Canadians?
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Von Richthofen's guns from his plane. Has to be Canadians?
You mean the HS129 ( Henschel Hs 129 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) ? It was used in an anti-tank role on the Eastern Front.Quote:
Originally Posted by CINDERS
One variation:
http://airwar.ru/image/idop/aww2/hs129/hs129-10.jpg
I have seen pics of B-25s with eight 50's in the nose, four 50's on each side of the fuselage and the roof turret locked forward. That gives 18 guns - bound to ruin your day. IIRC, this was a field mod used against Japaneses shipping; it was said that a long burst would cut a Jap destroyer in half.... :move eek:
I originally put 129 and thought it wrong thats what happens when I do not consult my books yes it was used on the eastern front, other machines mounted the 2pdr Molins on the mossie, 2 x40mm on the Hunrricane, 2 x 37mm on the Stuka. I have seen footage of the 75mm being fired in the B 25 and it fairly makes the aircraft jump.
I have also seen the footage of the 50 cals on the 25 going off they had to reinforce the fuselage skin due to the blast from the muzzles that caused probelems. Even with it beefed up the side skin still compressed when the guns were fired, the horse power it delivered up front was awseome. Also in the clip was how they skip bombed the detonation usually happened on the 3rd skip primaraly used on Japanese shipping in small coves that torpedoes would be ineffective having the wrong angle when dropped.
War Pig, Partly right, yes it is Von Richoftens guns taken off his aircraft by Australian souvenir hunters as he crashed landed in tact in their sector. The photo shows two Aussie officers inspecting them, most probably Flying Corps, who made tracks to the site when they heard of his demise.
There are two official accounts of who killed Richoften, one being a Royal Naval pilot Officer called Brown, but this appears very unlikely, but one the RAF would like to have recognised as the right one.
The greater belief was a Sergeant Cedric Popkin who was the person most likely to have killed Richthofen. Popkin was an anti-aircraft (AA) machine gunner with the Australian 24th Machine Gun Company, and was using a Vickers gun. He fired at Richthofen's aircraft on two occasions, first as the Baron was heading straight at his position, and then at long range from the right.
Given the nature of Richthofen's wounds, Popkin was in a position to fire the fatal shot, when the pilot passed him for a second time, on the right.
Don't know why I wrote Canadians I know better. :banghead:
For those interested here's a link to an article on the subject.
http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/comment/richt.htm
After much investigation not that long ago it was decided ground fire caused the fatal wound, souvineer hunters stripped the plane bare very quickly once its provevence was known.
One of the great questions was where did the guns go? They disappeared and then re-appeared for pictures only to disappear for good. Even if they reappeared today, there would be no provenance and they couldn't be proven...I think. And THAT'S too bad.
I seem to recall, years ago, seeing a photograph of a Bofors gun mounted, experimentally, in the tail of a WW2 British bomber aircraft. I can't remember any other details of this other than I think it was only tried out on a single aircraft before the idea was dropped. One can imagine the extremely unpleasant surprise of any attacking German fighter pilot, expecting to be fired on by 2 or 4 .303 Brownings,only to be on the receiving end of multiple Bofors shells. Does any-one have any further details on this experimental aircraft, please?