MULTIPLE CANNON

ATC Observer, Volume 1, Issue 7, 1 April 1943, Page 11

MULTIPLE CANNON

(from NEPTUNE

< It is not easy for those unacquainted wih the facts to understand why the Royal Air Force, using the astonishing Hurricane single-engine fighters mounted with four cannon guns, should spend so much time shooting at enemy shipping. Why bother about small ships , when Germany's main power is on the land? Can four small cannon guns sink a ship?

The answer to these questions can be’, clearly given. Germany’s railway system has failed: the strain on it has been too great. When Hitler developed the famous “Autobahnen” he neglected the railways. To-day, with, the petrol shortage, these magnificent roads are deserted and the neglected railways- have broken down under the strain. The . German High .Command is compelled to muster every available cargo-boat and carry war equipment

How the Royal Air Force is using “Hurricane” fighters ’ ' mounting 4 cannon guns.

to occupied Norway, Finland, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and France by sea in order to take the strain off the railways, which are used primarily by the German Army.

Readers unacquainted with shipping may riot realize that one 3,000 ton cargo boat can carry the same load as six average goods trains, and can do so; far. more economically. .

The destruction of the enemy convoys by cannon-firing Hurricanes is therefore easy to understand, particularly when it is realized that the R.A.F. possesses many squadrons of .these machines,‘that each of the four canpon fires 20 mm. shells and that in a dive at 400 m.p.-h. upon an .enemy ship one hundred small high-explosive shells can- enter the enemy ship’s hull below the water line in two and a half seconds! v A '