Defiant and air gunner kills

trackend · 06-09-2005, 06:27 AM

I found this site recently that appears to be well researched I was wondering what your thoughts where on it fellas as from what I have learned mainly on this site is that the Bolton Paul Defiant was a pretty poor aircraft, yet the figures show quite a large number of kills attributed to this particular plane.
http://jpgleize.club.fr/aces/ww2rafgu.htm

Andrew · 06-09-2005, 07:05 AM

Quite a few of the kills could be atributed to the Battle of France, and the very early days of the Battle of Britain, where the Defiant was used as an ordinary fighter, aparently as German pilots first thought it was a Hurricane they attacked it from the rear, thus giving the rear gunner ample opportunity to shoot down the attacking fighter, although once the Germans realised that the Defiant had no forward machine guns they became easy meat. After that it became a very effective night fighter, during the early stages of Nightfighter developement, that is where the rest of the kills came from.

FLYBOYJ · 06-09-2005, 08:38 AM

There's something about hearing an NCO being called an "ace," either as a pilot or a gunner that makes my day!

mosquitoman · 06-09-2005, 08:40 AM

I think 1 Defiant crew became aces, I'm not sure though

the lancaster kicks ass · 06-09-2005, 03:48 PM

yes it's because of the novelty of the defiant's armourment that she got so many kills, i believe for a while she held the record for the most planes shot down in one day........

trackend · 06-09-2005, 04:16 PM

Its not bad going for a turret gunner to have 13 kills to his name like Fred Barker 264sqn at the top of that list I found.