Originally Posted by viper2007

According to the video, whilst other pilots will start shooting from a range of 400 meters, the Polish pilots will cloose in to about 100 metres, and they will open up... what guts...!

Very much so Viper. Various pilots had their gun set to converge at various ranges that better suited their tactics.

Many people regard the Spitfire as the fighter that won the Battle of Britain, when in fact the Hawker Hurricane shot down 2/3rds of all enemy aircraft. She was the ugly duckling but she did her job.

Originally Posted by BritinAfrica

Very much so Viper. Various pilots had their gun set to converge at various ranges that better suited their tactics.

Many people regard the Spitfire as the fighter that won the Battle of Britain, when in fact the Hawker Hurricane shot down 2/3rds of all enemy aircraft. She was the ugly duckling but she did her job.

Quite right, Mr Brit... It was the Hurricane that did shot down more Nazi planes than the Spit, but the Spit seems to epitomise the Spirit of Britain at tha time.

Considering the way the Hurricane was built- rather archaic, actually- it did its job, awesome...

Originally Posted by BritinAfrica

Very much so Viper. Various pilots had their gun set to converge at various ranges that better suited their tactics.

Many people regard the Spitfire as the fighter that won the Battle of Britain, when in fact the Hawker Hurricane shot down 2/3rds of all enemy aircraft. She was the ugly duckling but she did her job.

A lot of pilots had their guns re-syncrhonised to converge at closer ranges to give them a better chance of hitting and bringing down the bombers.

The Spitfires and Hurricanes were armed with .303 Brownings (There were some Spitfires with an early 20mm cannon fit, but they were un-reliable) and the small rifle calibre required a lot of hits to bring down Heinkel 111s, Dornier 17s, Junkers 88s, etc.

The Messerschmitt Bf-109 and Bf-110s had 20mm cannons that would tear Spitfires and Hurricanes appart, and early on in the Battle, most RAF aircraft did not even have armour fitted for the pilot.

The Hurricanes were the unsung heroes of the fight, they were a more stable gun platform and not brought down more Germans than the Spitfire, but were the real bomber killers.

The reason more Germans were shot down by Hurricanes than Spitfires was quite simple, and that was because there were four times as many Hurricanes in the BoB than Spitfires. The Spitfires had been delayed becoming front line fighters due to the productions problems in the new type of design. If I remember rightly all the fighters had armour plate behind the pilot and a bullet proof windscreen on booth fighters even in the BoB. Also the Spitfires would take on the German fighter while the Hurricans went for the bombers which were an easier Target

Originally Posted by LeEnfield

The reason more Germans were shot down by Hurricanes than Spitfires was quite simple, and that was because there were four times as many Hurricanes in the BoB than Spitfires. The Spitfires had been delayed becoming front line fighters due to the productions problems in the new type of design. If I remember rightly all the fighters had armour plate behind the pilot and a bullet proof windscreen on booth fighters even in the BoB. Also the Spitfires would take on the German fighter while the Hurricans went for the bombers which were an easier Target

Indeed the Hurricanes were easier to build. There were 32 Squadrons of Hurricanes compared to 19 of Spitfires.

Some Hurricanes were fitted with twelve 303's guns (Mk IIA Series 2 and were renamed Mark IIB in April 1941.) and some ( Mk IIB) were fitted with a 40mm gun in each wing called "The tank buster."

Even if she was a bit old fashioned she did a wonderful job.

As a matter of interest The children’s author Roald Dahl flew
Hurricanes for the RAF during the war.

Dowding had to fight the Air Ministry to get armoured windscreens fitted to Spitfires and Hurricanes. In the end he said to the Minister of Aircraft production "If bullet proof glass is good enough for Chicago gangsters, then it should be good enough for my pilots!"

There was reluctance to fit back armour to the pilot's seat initially as some believed it would effect the centre of gravity of the aircraft and the extra weight would effect the performance of the aeroplane.
Only once shot down German aircraft were found to have seat armour, was there armour fitted to Spitfires and Hurricanes.

All this happened fairly early on in the Battle of France.
By the time the Battle of Britain was underway, the RAF fighters had armoured seats and windscreens.

Don't forget that at the start of the battle, some fighter squadrons were equipped with Gloster Gladiators, Bristol Blenheims and Boulton Paul Defiants. It wasn't all Spitfires and Hurricanes, and the actual first
Heinkel 111 shot down was by a Blackburn Skua of the Fleet Air Arm.

The Blackburn Skua was designed as a dive bomber, but was also used as a fighter. A very strange looking aeroplane.

The Defiant after surprising the Germans in France during 1940 and caught them out with turret was withdrawn during the BoB as the Germans would attack it head on where it was not armed and shot them down in droves and was quickly withdrawn and used tow targets. The Gladiator as far as I remember did not take part in BoB and was used as a training aircraft. If it was flying when a raid came in then it was soon sent in the opposite direction as trained aircrew at that time for the RAF was a valuable assert and was not to be wasted by attacking the German formation in a flimsy biplane with a fixed undercarriage. The Skua was little more that a lump of junk which the RAF had ordered for the Carriers when they had control of Naval airpower and this is reason that the Fleet Air Arm wound up flying the Gladiator for the early part of the war.

I need to correct myself.
it wasn't the Blackburn Skua, it was the Blackburn Roc.
This was the Fleet Air Arm's version of the Defiant, it to had a powered four gun turret as its. Sole gun armament and was vulnerable to head on attacks.

Originally Posted by BritinAfrica

Very much so Viper. Various pilots had their gun set to converge at various ranges that better suited their tactics.

Many people regard the Spitfire as the fighter that won the Battle of Britain, when in fact the Hawker Hurricane shot down 2/3rds of all enemy aircraft. She was the ugly duckling but she did her job.

The Hurricane was a more stable gun platform than the Spitfire.