Recent content by yulzari

The bombs around my old house and last one were from a Ju88 attacked at low level and jettisoned it’s load in an effort to escape. This might have been a behaviour that could be interpreted as in the OP.

Getting in and out of small airfields can determine what you use rather than the performance in the air. It was the small fields which caused the RAF to take Gladiators with them in the BoF. and allowed Gladiators to be based in Plymouth during the BoB.

In short, a strategic Luftwaffe could only have been achieved at the expense of a tactical Luftwaffe. Germany had to have a prime tactical Luftwaffe to achieve the fast victory it needed. A strategic Luftwaffe could not deliver such a victory within a useful timescale and probably could not...

You have to see this in full. So much to hear and so much new to see. Thank you for posting this.

For the first three years or the duration? The key thing about the Hurricane was its presence in numbers at a key place and time. Not the quality of the aeroplane itself, which was adequate but not outstanding for the time.

Happy to be corrected but my memory is that the wing weakness was skin buckling in the air rather than landing issues. The RAF used them operationally for two years in Burma with the last being just into 1944 so they must have been robust enough for them. Perhaps the later Mohawk wings were...

British engines. The Rolls Royce Hillington shadow factory in Hillington near Glasgow was to be the model for the French Merlin factory as it was being built from scratch as a mass production facility.

One might equally say that the Canadian lorry industry kept the war going until the USA entered the war against fascism in the fourth year by keeping the Commonwealth forces mobile. Not so not did it allow them to advance faster than the German army who were, overall, reduced to foot/horse speed...

I agree that the Spitfire complemented the Hurricane but the key thing about the Hurricane was simply that it was there in greater numbers.

And of these two the Hurricane made the greatest difference.

I think you have explained why they went for a two seater with the range/endurance to recce far or keep a CAP over the fleet. The TAG could find the carrier without compromising radio silence of either party nor tying the carrier to a preplanned route and timing. It was not an either/or in RN...

There seems to be some misconception that I was claiming the Defiant to have been in command of the night skies. Merely that, during it’s service in a period which includes 1940 and 1941, it performed better than the available alternatives until the radar equipped Blenheims came into full...

In 1940-41 it was the best night fighter the RAF had and continued in service after the first radar equipped Blenheims with the Defiant also getting radar. At least it could chase a Ju88 unlike the Blenheim. It was not until the Beaufighter took on the role that the squadrons all moved on from...

The Bristol Taurus was an Aquila related design giving about twice the power for an additional 250kg more so of the same diameter as the Aquila but a twin row so longer too. The issue would be centre of gravity and extra tankage to feed the beastie were it stuck on a Venom. As it was the Venom...

My personal opinion is that, whilst their Supermarine arm was looking purely at performance with their background in artisan made flying boats and racing aeroplanes, the Vickers arm was thinking about production ease and costs. The geodetic construction they went for in large aeroplanes required...