Chapter 1948： The so-called magic

"The cargo has arrived, we should be ready to act." At an airport on the outskirts of Normandy, France, a mechanic pointed to a group of planes that appeared in the distance.

When the tower and the aircraft group conducted radio communication and confirmed the identity of the target, the original line of anti-aircraft artillery and machine guns no longer pointed in the air, and the ground guide began to guide the aircraft to land next to the airport runway. After landing, these planes were not sent to the hangar, but were pulled by the tractor to a nearby apron that was used as a modification area.

This time came a group of dh11 twin-engine light bombers. This aircraft is currently the best light bomber in the British Air Force. The fuselage length is 13.8 meters, the wings are 13.84 meters, the height is 4.12 meters, and the wing area is 66.8 square meters. , Empty weight 1866kg, maximum take-off weight 3200kg. Under normal circumstances, this aircraft can carry 500kg bombs with full fuel. Of course, the best thing is the speed of this aircraft, with a top speed of 198 kilometers per hour, which is almost the same as the best British Camel fighter. It is a very good high-speed bomber!

And one of the best features of this aircraft is that it doesn't eat engines, as long as two 320-horsepower Flying Dragon v9 air-cooled engines are enough. Compared with the dh10 twin-engine light bomber that went out of the same division, the weight of the dh11 is much lighter, and the maximum take-off weight is also much lighter, but the load is similar. The latter will use two Victory A-type v12 liquid-cooled engines with a maximum output of 400 horsepower. Although the speed of dh10 is higher. (The maximum flight speed is 211 kilometers per hour...) However, considering the difficulty and fragility of liquid-cooled engine production, the low-power air-cooled engine used by dh11 is obviously more suitable for changing into an interceptor for air combat.

"Brother, treat my old man well. It was fought against the Germans in Asia Minor. We fought at least 80 air battles together." After a pilot jumped off the dh11 light bomber, he patted his colleagues. Said the shoulder.

"Have you come back alive from the battlefield of Asia Minor? Then it is not easy for you. I heard that Air Force pilots who participated in the battle in Asia Minor can come back. 3 It is a good achievement. The rest are either dead on the battlefield or staying in the German prisoner of war camp. In. Even if they come back, many of them are disabled," the mechanic said.

"Yes, it is very cruel. One of our squadrons normally consists of 15 crews, a total of 45 pilots, and at least 30 people were added in the middle, and now only 7 of us are left alive." The pilot sighed. Said.

"Well, brother, help me change this plane. Next time I will fly it to challenge the German bombers. I still want to live the war to end." said the pilot.

"Okay, no problem, I will change it to an armored rhinoceros. It will be invincible in the air!" The mechanic patted the opponent on the shoulder, and then greeted his men to prepare to modify this dh11 light bomber.

Several mechanics first went up to unload the bombing operation and sighting equipment located in the middle seat. This bomber was originally equipped with three people. In addition to the driver and the rear-shooter gunner, there was a bombardier and radio transceiver ( If equipped with radio equipment). However, if it is to be used as an interceptor, the bomber is naturally not needed, so these sophisticated bombing devices and seats and other materials must be removed. The space here will be opened up with the seats of the rear seat personnel and then re-arranged.

The two parallel Lewis light machine guns used by the rear-seat machine gunner were unloaded and replaced with the French 13.2mm Hatch case heavy machine gun. This machine gun inherits the heavy and efficient heat sink of the previous Hatch case machine gun, and can fire continuously without concern for overheating. But at the same time, it also inherits the super heavy weight of this machine gun. The weight of this machine gun is as high as 37.5kg. And the length of the machine gun is 1.67 meters, which is very laborious to operate! However, considering the powerful 13.2*96mm bullets, this machine gun is much more powerful than the two Lewis machine guns. Although it cannot be compared with the German 12.7mm machine guns, it is considered that the Allies do not have suitable weapons, so these weights The price is worth it in the eyes of the British...

(First of all, let me explain that there are sometimes differences between the optimized aviation machine gun and the machine gun used by the army. You may be able to see from Baidu that the weight of the m2 12.7mm machine gun is 38kg. This is correct, but don’t I thought that all 12.7mm machine guns have such a heavy body. The US's .7mm machine gun in World War II weighs only 61 pounds, and the rate of fire is as high as that. There is no single-shot option, only continuous firing. And the rate of fire of the .7mm machine gun after World War II. It's over a thousand, and the weight is only over 31kg.)

This time the British considered the supply of machine guns. Therefore, the Hatch case machine gun was equipped with a huge drum. In order to balance the weight of the machine gun and the drum, the position of the machine gun bracket was in the middle, and the gun body was left and the drum right, so that the center of gravity of the whole machine gun was just right. On the gun stand. Relying on the coil spring inside the drum, this machine gun can finally guarantee a very smooth feeding under any circumstances. Later, the British discovered another problem.... This rear-fire machine gun is a bit heavy!

Think about it and understand A machine gun is 37.5kg! In addition, the drum next to it weighs about 15 kilograms. Well, considering some other weights such as the gun frame, a rear seat machine gunner is controlling the machine gun on a swaying plane thinking about the same erratic plane shooting behind. This difficulty It was a bit big, so the British had to install a fairly efficient gun stand and sighting equipment for the machine gun after stopping. This is not a small amount of engineering.

However, the engineering quantity of the modified machine gun is nothing compared to other aspects of work. The British had never thought of launching a twin-engine heavy interceptor. They had no experience and no theoretical basis. So what should they do if they want to achieve better performance? Then you can only use weight and engineering quantity to pile up!

Fortunately, the foundation of the dh11 is better, and it is more convenient to modify. First of all, what needs to be modified is to extend the nose of the dh11, and put four French 13.2mm machine guns together with the gun frame and shock absorbers into the machine. In the head compartment. But after all, this nose is not professionally capable of accommodating machine guns, so the machine guns that can be loaded have reached the limit. Those who want to load a large amount of ammunition may not work.

However, the British also have a way. They put their idea on the ammunition bay in the middle of the plane! As a result, British engineers gave the aircraft a blast. After clearing the space inside the magazine, a channel for conveying bullets was installed to connect with the machine gun group at the front of the aircraft. In this original belly ammunition compartment, the British squeezed in .2mm machine gun bullets! Add 1 tracer after every 5 incendiary rounds!

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