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CANNON OR MACHINE GUN? the Second World War Aircraft Gun Controversy

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CANNON OR MACHINE GUN? the Second World War Aircraft Gun Controversy CANNON OR MACHINE GUN? The Second World War Aircraft Gun Controversy © Anthony G Williams This article first appeared in Aeroplane Magazine in September 2004. It is based on material in Flying Guns – World War 2: Development of Aircraft Guns, Ammunition and Installations 1933-45 The Second World War stimulated an important advance in aircraft gun armament. The fighters of most combatant nations began the war with a few riflecalibre machine-guns (RCMGs) of 7.5-8 mm calibre, but, by the end of the conflict, cannon of 20 mm or greater calibre were standard. The one exception was the USA, which relied overwhelmingly on the 12.7 mm (0.50 inch) M2 Browning heavy machine-gun (HMG). Students of armament history continue to argue: why did this happen, and were the Americans right? EARLY FIGHTING In 1939 the RAF's new Spitfire and Hurricane fighters were remarkable for their heavy battery of eight wing-mounted 0.303 inch (7.7 mm) RCMGs; twice as powerful as that of any other major fighter. In contrast, Germany's Luftwaffe had been watching the French use of engine-mounted cannon. In 1932 this resulted in a requirement for a fighter with two RCMGs or a single 20 mm cannon. The weapon considered was the large, very powerful but slow-firing RheinmetallBorsig MG C/30L, firing through the propeller hub. An initial experiment with a prototype Heinkel He 112 in the Spanish Civil War showed that this installation was unsatisfactory for aerial combat, though effective in ground attack. Germany then went to the opposite extreme and selected the small, low- velocity Swiss Oerlikon FF 20 mm cannon for development. A modified version, the MG-FF, was put into production by Ikaria Werke Berlin, and entered Luftwaffe service. Initial attempts to fit this as an engine gun ran into reliability problems, so the Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3 of 1939 carried two MG- FFs in the wings and a pair of 7.92 mm MG 17 guns synchronised to fire through the propeller disc. However, many Bf 109s were still armed with four RCMGs at the start of the war. The Battle of France caught the French with few fighters capable of dealing with the Bf 109s. Most French fighters carried a mixture of 20 mm cannon and RCMGs; the best was the Dewoitine D.520 with its four wing-mounted 7.5 mm MAC34 M39 MGs and the powerful, fast-firing Hispano-Suiza HS 404 moteur canon. The US-built Curtiss Hawk H-75A, with four or six 7.5 mm FN-Browning guns, was too lightly armed. One lesson of early fighting was that the RAF fighters' battery of RCMGs was less effective than expected. Although the eight guns between them fired no fewer than 160 rounds per second (rps), they were initially adjusted to concentrate their fire at the long range of 365 m which led to the bullet strikes being spread across the target at shorter ranges. As self-sealing fuel tanks and armour became much more common during 1940, it proved necessary to concentrate fire at much closer ranges. The problem was that the small bullets fired by the RCMGs could not carry enough incendiary or explosive to guarantee success, and also had insufficient penetration to defeat armour reliably. A series of ground tests carried out by the British, firing at a redundant Bristol Blenheim from 180 m to the rear with various British and German guns and ammunition, revealed that the .303 incendiary B Mk VI bullets would set light to a Blenheim wing tank with only one hit in five; during the Battle only one or two of the eight guns were normally loaded with this ammunition. Other .303 and 7.92 mm incendiaries were only half as effective. Similarly, while both German and British steel-cored armour-piercing (AP) rounds could penetrate up to 12 mm of armour plate if fired directly at it from 180 m, most of the bullets were deflected or tumbled by first passing through the fuselage skin or structure. In consequence, only a quarter to a third of the bullets reached the Blenheim's 4 mm-thick armour plate at all, and very few penetrated it. The Luftwaffe relied more on their 20 mm MGFF cannon, which had some interesting advantages and disadvantages. The guns were more than twice as heavy as the 7.92 mm MG 17 and fired only half as fast, at about 9 rps. The muzzle velocity was also lower, giving a different trajectory and time-to- target. Moreover, the 60round capacity of its drum magazine limited the weapon to only about 7 secs of firing. However, the big shells weighed about 12 times as much as the RCMG bullets, and their high-explosive filling caused blast damage, as well as throwing high-velocity shell fragments around. In May 1940 the Bf 109E-4 entered service with the modified MG-FFM gun, adapted to fire the new Minengeschoss (mine shell) ammunition which had very thin walls and a doubled capacity for high explosive (HE) and/or incendiary. As a bonus the shells were lighter, permitting a higher muzzle velocity. The theory was that solid bullets or AP cannon shells relied on hitting the relatively small vital areas to have an effect, whereas an HE shell could cause serious damage regardless of where it struck. There is no doubt that this theory was correct: the Spitfires and Hurricanes would have had far more effect on the Luftwaffe's bombers had they been armed with four MG-FFM cannon, which would have weighed little more than their battery of RCMGs. THE SEARCH FOR BIGGER GUNS The RAF had realised years before the war that the .303 MG might become inadequate as a primary aircraft gun, given the steady increase in speed, strength and toughness of aircraft. They considered, but rejected, .50 inch (I2.7 mm) guns as giving insufficient advantage over the .303. Instead, they sought a good 20 mm cannon, which they thought would be far more effective due to its explosive ammunition, and found one in the new French Hispano- Suiza HS.404. This was selected in the late 1930s, and specifications were written for a new fighter to carry it (the Westland Whirlwind), but problems in setting up UK factories meant that only a few guns were available for the Battle of Britain. To save time the Hispano was fitted to existing single-engined fighters for testing, and a squadron of Spitfire IBs saw service during the Battle. However, the gun was designed to be mounted on a massive engine block, and did not like being installed in a far more flexible wing. Moreover, the initial installation had the guns on their sides to bury the big drum magazines in the wings, and the Hispano did not like this at all. The result was such appalling unreliability, the guns frequently jamming after only one shot, that the squadron requested its old aeroplanes back. Throughout the Hispano's life, fine-tuning of installations was required to make it reliable in wing mountings. Guns mounted in the much more rigid fuselages of such aircraft as the Whirlwind, Beaufighter and Mosquito caused far fewer problems. Once working properly, the big cannon was a formidable weapon. Compared with the MG-FF it was slightly faster-firing at 10 rps, and its much bigger cartridge cases generated a considerably higher muzzle velocity, which improved both hit probability and penetration. While the Allies never introduced the Minengeschoss technology, so their shells only carried half the HE/Incendiary (HEI) load, the heavy Hispano shells' better penetration meant they could inflict considerable damage. The Hispano soon changed from a 60-round drum magazine to a belt feed giving much greater ammunition capacity (which the MG-FF never had, other than in an obscure nightfighter installation). The penalty was that the Hispano was almost twice as long as and double the weight of the German gun; unwelcome features for wing-mounted weapons. RAF fighters carried a mixture of HE or HEI and plain steel "ball" (practice) rounds (which had good penetration) until the emergence of the semi-armour piercing incendiary (SAPI) in 1942, after which the standard loading was 50/50 HEI and SAPI. The German cannon were not exclusively loaded with Minengeschoss, but used them mixed with older-type HEI-T shells (retained because, unlike the M-Geschoss, they could carry a tracer) and later some API rounds as well, in varying proportions. The Germans were not satisfied with the MG-FFM, which had been adopted as an interim measure pending the development of a purpose-designed cannon. This duly emerged as the Mauser MG 151, which gradually took over from 1941. Initially, the Mauser had been designed to use a high-velocity 15 mm cartridge, but it saw relatively little service in this form. Wartime experience led to the cartridge case being modified to accept the 20 mm shells from the MG-FFM, surrendering muzzle velocity and penetration in the interests of far greater destructive effect. The 15 mm version was available with HE shells, but they were considered too small. The resulting MG 151/20 was intermediate in size, weight and muzzle velocity between the MG-FFM and the Hispano, but was faster-firing at 12 rps. It was a superb design which the Americans tried to copy, producing some 300 guns in .60 inch (15.2 mm) calibre, designated T17, but they never adopted it. Later in the war, various new German guns emerged with calibres of up to 50 mm. The most significant ones were the Rheinmetall-Borsig MG 131, MK 103 and MK 108.
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