Chapter 1948: The So-Called Magic Reform One

"The cargo has arrived, we should prepare for action." At this time, at an airport on the outskirts of Normandy, France, a mechanic pointed to a fleet of planes that appeared in the distance.

After the radio communication between the tower and the aircraft fleet confirmed the identity of the target, the anti-aircraft artillery and machine guns that were originally lined up no longer pointed at the air, and the ground guides began to guide the aircraft to land beside the airport runway. After these planes landed, they were not sent to the hangar, but were pulled by tractors to a nearby apron that was used as a modification area.

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

And one of the best features of this aircraft is that it does not eat engines, as long as two 320-horsepower Wyvern-style V9 air-cooled engines are enough. Compared with the dh10 twin-engine light bomber from the same division, the dh11's dead weight is much lighter, and its maximum take-off weight is also much lighter, but its load is similar. The latter uses 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 production difficulty and fragility of liquid-cooled engines, the low-power air-cooled engines used by dh11 are obviously more suitable for being converted into interceptors for air combat.

"Brother, treat my old buddy well. He fought the Germans in Asia Minor back then. We fought at least 80 air battles together." A pilot jumped off the dh11 light bomber and patted his colleague. shoulder said.

"Did you come back alive from the battlefield in Asia Minor? Then you are really not easy. I heard that the air force pilots who participated in the battle in Asia Minor can come back 3 achievements, and the rest will either die on the battlefield or stay in the German prisoner-of-war camp. Medium. Even if they come back, many of them are disabled," said the mechanic.

"Yeah, it's very cruel. Our squadron 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.

"Okay, brother, help me improve this plane. Next time I will fly it to challenge the German bombers. I still want to live until the end of the war." The pilot said.

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

Several mechanics first went up and removed the bombing operation and aiming equipment located in the middle seat. This bomber was originally equipped with three people. In addition to the driver and the rear-firing machine gunner, there was also a bombardier and radio transceiver ( if equipped with radio equipment). And if it is to be used as an interceptor, the bombardier is naturally unnecessary, so these sophisticated bombing devices and seats and other materials must be removed, and the space here will be opened up with the seats of the rear seats, and then re-arranged.

The two parallel Lewis light machine guns used by the rear seat machine gunner were removed and replaced with 13.2mm Hotchkiss heavy machine guns produced by the French. This machine gun inherited the heavy and efficient cooling fins of the previous Hotchkiss machine gun,

Can shoot continuously without worrying about 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 if the machine gun is not counted, and the gun frame is not counted! Moreover, 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, considering that the Allied Powers did not have suitable weapons, so these weights The price is still 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 true, but don’t Thought all 12.7mm machine guns were so heavy. American .7mm machine guns from WWII weighed only 61 lbs and had a high rate of fire. There was no single shot option, only bursts. And the rate of fire of post WWII .7mm machine guns It is more than a thousand, and the weight is only a little over 31kg.)

This time the British considered the problem of feeding the machine gun. Therefore, the Hotchkiss machine gun is 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 is in the middle, and the gun body is on the left side, and the drum is on the right side. In this way, the center of gravity of the whole machine gun is just right. on the gun rack. Relying on the coil spring inside the drum, this machine gun can finally guarantee a very smooth supply of ammunition under any circumstances. Then, the British discovered another problem... . This rear-firing machine gun is a bit heavy!

Think about it and understand, a machine gun weighs 37.5kg! Coupled with the magazine drum next to it, the weight is about 15 kilograms. Well, I am considering some other weights such as the gun mount. A rear-seat machine gunner controls the machine gun on a shaky plane and thinks about the same erratic plane behind. This difficulty It's really a bit big, so the British had to install a relatively efficient gun mount and aiming equipment for this stop-and-shoot machine gun. This is not a small amount of engineering.

However, the amount of work involved in modifying a rear-firing machine gun pales in comparison to other aspects of work. The British had never thought of building a twin-engine heavy interceptor before. 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 the weight and engineering volume to pile up!

Fortunately, the foundation of the dh11 is relatively good, and it is more convenient to modify. First, what needs to be modified is to lengthen the nose of the dh11, and stuff four French 13.2mm machine guns, gun mounts and shock absorbers into the machine. in the cockpit. But after all, this machine head is not professionally equipped to accommodate machine guns, so the machine gun can be loaded to the limit, and those who want to load a large amount of ammunition may not be able to do so.

However, the British also have a way, they put their ideas on the ammunition bay in the middle of the plane! Therefore, the British engineer directly disemboweled the aircraft, cleaned up the space inside the magazine, and installed a channel for conveying bullets to connect with the machine gun group at the front of the aircraft. In this original belly ammunition compartment, the British stuffed it with .2mm machine gun bullets! Add 1 tracer bomb after every 5 incendiary bombs!

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