The Southland Times SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1941. Artillery on Wings

Southland Times, Issue 24575, 25 October 1941, Page 6

The Southland Times SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1941. Artillery on Wings

A BRITISH Official Wireless message printed this morning pays tribute to the originators of the eight-gun armament of British fighter planes. They were the late WingCommander A. T. Williams, who first proposed the construction of an eight-gun fighter in April 1933, and Squadron Leader (now Air ViceMarshal) H. S. Sorley, who, after the advent of the monoplane had facilitated this development, drew up fresh plans in 1935. British engineers did the rest by producing a magnificent liquid-cooled engine, the RollsRoyce Merlin 11, which made the heavily-armed fighter a practicable proposition. Although both WingCommander Williams and Squadron Leader Sorley were ardent advocates of the eight-gun fighter, and must have visualized its deadly possibilities, it is unlikely that either of them foresaw the really decisive part that fl would play in saving their country a few years later. For there is no doubt that the terrific fire-power of the Spitfires and Hurricanes ranked high among the factors which won the Battle of Britain in 1940 and changed the entire course of the war. The better training and finer spirit of the British pilots were two of these factors, and vital ones; but they could not alone have achieved the defeat of an enemy who was so vastly superior in numbers. The men of the Royal Air Force were not only better pilots, they had better aircraft. The superiority of the Spitfires and Hurricanes was expressed partly in speed, partly in power of manoeuvre, but mostly in armament. The armament of these aircraft was immensely stronger- than that of their German contemporaries, and once they reached short range, which they were able to do by virtue of their greater speed and better ability to manoeuvre, there could be no reply to the devastating fire of their eightgun batteries. As Assistant Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice-Marshal Sorley is today charged with “special consideration of operational requirements and tactics.” He is responsible for the development of fighter armament; and it is significant that the latest version of the Hurricane, Mark 11, has not eight machine-guns, but 12, capable of firing 240 bullets a second. With its alternative armament of four 20-millimetre cannon, the new Hurricane is still deadlier. These cannon fire a three-quarter inch shell at the rate of several hundred rounds a minute, and their destructive effect is such that Hurricanes are now regularly being used to sink heavily-armed anti-aircraft ships and minesweepers off the French and Dutch coasts. This rapid development of firepower is opening up many possibilities in air warfare, and the fighter aeroplane may soon become a more deadly weapon on the field of battle than the dive-bomber. Already it can direct at troops, for a limited period, more bullets than an infantry battalion could, and it is being used increasingly to attack hangars, aeroplanes on the ground, armoured columns and even tanks. The use of fighters for this sort of air attack on the Eastern Front has prompted Major Oliver Stewart to say that the Russians have operated their air force more intelligently than any other nation at war. There are other sides to the battle for air supremacy, notably the attempt to build planes that will fly faster and higher. But at the moment designers are concentrating chiefly on fire-power; and it is reassuring to know that in Britain “the decisions of today for the fighting requirements of tomorrow” rest in the hands of a 43-year-old Air ViceMarshal who, as an active airman, was one of the originators of the eight-gun fighter. •