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O.C.
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The First Spitfire to be completed and delivered to the RAF was in 1937 its top speed was 346 m.p.h., and it had an armament of eight machine-guns in the wings, which could be fired at the pressing of a button in. the pilot's cockpit.
Small and unimpressive outside, the modern Spitfire was a veritable box of tricks inside its smooth, streamlined hull. It seems impossible, indeed, that so much could be crammed into so small a space. The 1,030 h.p. Merlin engine gives the fighter in the later models a top speed of 387 m.p.h., and in these same models the eight Browning guns in the wings had been replaced by cannon-guns firing small shells. Then there was a perfect swarm of instruments and gadgets of all kinds. There was a two-way wireless set, an oxygen-breathing apparatus for flying at high altitudes, parachute flares, and as the pilot sat in his cockpit enclosed with bullet-proof glass, he was confronted by an instrument panel containing an altimeter, engine revolution counters, a turn indicator, air temperature thermometers, petrol gauges, a clock and a multitude of other instruments. The undercarriage was retractable to still further reduce resistance to the air, and in flight a Spitfire was as near like a bullet as possible, a bullet with wings.
Such was the machine which, with the Hawker Hurricane, another single-seater monoplane fighter mounting eight Browning guns, and with a top speed of 336 m.p.h., formed Britain's first line of defence against the German Lutwaffe when the Battle of Britain began on August 8th, 1940.
Against them the Germans launched a formidable array of bombing aircraft protected by two main types of fighters, the ME. 109 and the ME. 110. The ME. 109 was a single-seater monoplane fighter armed with a cannon and six machine-guns, and with a maximum speed of 350 m.p.h. The ME 110. was larger than the 109. It was a two-seater monoplane mounting four fixed machine-guns and two cannon, and. its top speed was fifteen miles greater than that of the 109, but it lacked the smaller machine's power of manoeuvre. In addition to these there was the Heinkel 113, a single-engined fighter with a top speed of 380 m.p.h., and provided with a cannon and two large-bore machine-guns.
It was noticed that the German fighters were more heavily armed than the Spitfire or the Hurricane, though the number of weapons were less. For a long time there had been a fight between those who supported the aerial cannon and those who claimed that a large battery of machine-guns, pouring their concentrated fire into one small target, would be far more deadly. The Germans felt sure that their heavier guns would blow our air fighters from the skies. Our people were equally certain that our octuple (eight) machine-gun batteries would tear the German machines to ribbons, and send them reeling earthwards, and when the testing time came, our people proved to be right.
Every one knows the story of the Battle of Britain. Germany had decided to bring the war to an end in the Autumn of 1940, and for that purpose she prepared a great invasion of Britain. But first the Royal Air Force had to be destroyed or grounded, and on August 8th, 1940, the Lutwaffe set about the destruction of Britain's air power. Goering and his flying men felt quite certain that they could do this. Had they not done it in Poland and other countries, overcoming aerial resistance by sheer weight of numbers, so why should they not do it in England ? Time provided two answers to that question. First our men, second our machines. We had the best of both, while the Germans, man for man and machine for machine, were not quiet so good. For once they had met their match.
The Battle of Britain lasted for the best part of three months and was divided roughly into four phases. In the first phase the Germans tried to destroy our shipping and attacked our South-Eastern coastal towns and aerodromes. In this they failed, and attributing their failure rightly to our Spitfires and Hurricanes, the enemy next attempted to put out of action our fighter aerodromes and aircraft factories, and so paralyse our defence.
Again our incomparable airmen in their incomparable machines won the day.
Goering turned his rage on London in a final, desperate effort to turn defeat into victory. This attack lasted from the 7th September to the 5th October, during which weeks the Germans made a desperate attempt to destroy London and win the war. They did not win it, London was not destroyed, and so heavy was the toll taken by our Spitfires and Hurricanes of the German bombers, that after the 6th October, these were withdrawn from the fight, and from then onward till the end of the month, when the battle came to an end, the Lutwaffe continued a losing contest with fighters and fighter-bombers alone. They must have known that they were beaten, however. Already they had lost huge numbers of aircraft. Already the name " Spitfire" was a word of fear among the German airmen, and again and again the sight of a force of these little fighters, hurtling through the air, would cause a much larger enemy force to turn tail and run before the battle was engaged.
Reginald Mitchell the man who designed the Spitfire never lived to learn the result of the Battle of Britain, for he died in 1937, two years before the war began. He never knew that, between the 8th August and the 31st October, 1940, Spitfires and Hurricanes shot down 2,375 German aircraft for certain, not counting the hundreds which must have crashed on the way home. But the Germans know, and we know, too, that Reginald Mitchell, sitting at his desk, did as much as any man and more than most to win the Battle for Freedom when he designed the Spitfire, and left that incomparable fighter as a legacy to his country to serve her in her hour of need
Small and unimpressive outside, the modern Spitfire was a veritable box of tricks inside its smooth, streamlined hull. It seems impossible, indeed, that so much could be crammed into so small a space. The 1,030 h.p. Merlin engine gives the fighter in the later models a top speed of 387 m.p.h., and in these same models the eight Browning guns in the wings had been replaced by cannon-guns firing small shells. Then there was a perfect swarm of instruments and gadgets of all kinds. There was a two-way wireless set, an oxygen-breathing apparatus for flying at high altitudes, parachute flares, and as the pilot sat in his cockpit enclosed with bullet-proof glass, he was confronted by an instrument panel containing an altimeter, engine revolution counters, a turn indicator, air temperature thermometers, petrol gauges, a clock and a multitude of other instruments. The undercarriage was retractable to still further reduce resistance to the air, and in flight a Spitfire was as near like a bullet as possible, a bullet with wings.
Such was the machine which, with the Hawker Hurricane, another single-seater monoplane fighter mounting eight Browning guns, and with a top speed of 336 m.p.h., formed Britain's first line of defence against the German Lutwaffe when the Battle of Britain began on August 8th, 1940.
Against them the Germans launched a formidable array of bombing aircraft protected by two main types of fighters, the ME. 109 and the ME. 110. The ME. 109 was a single-seater monoplane fighter armed with a cannon and six machine-guns, and with a maximum speed of 350 m.p.h. The ME 110. was larger than the 109. It was a two-seater monoplane mounting four fixed machine-guns and two cannon, and. its top speed was fifteen miles greater than that of the 109, but it lacked the smaller machine's power of manoeuvre. In addition to these there was the Heinkel 113, a single-engined fighter with a top speed of 380 m.p.h., and provided with a cannon and two large-bore machine-guns.
It was noticed that the German fighters were more heavily armed than the Spitfire or the Hurricane, though the number of weapons were less. For a long time there had been a fight between those who supported the aerial cannon and those who claimed that a large battery of machine-guns, pouring their concentrated fire into one small target, would be far more deadly. The Germans felt sure that their heavier guns would blow our air fighters from the skies. Our people were equally certain that our octuple (eight) machine-gun batteries would tear the German machines to ribbons, and send them reeling earthwards, and when the testing time came, our people proved to be right.
Every one knows the story of the Battle of Britain. Germany had decided to bring the war to an end in the Autumn of 1940, and for that purpose she prepared a great invasion of Britain. But first the Royal Air Force had to be destroyed or grounded, and on August 8th, 1940, the Lutwaffe set about the destruction of Britain's air power. Goering and his flying men felt quite certain that they could do this. Had they not done it in Poland and other countries, overcoming aerial resistance by sheer weight of numbers, so why should they not do it in England ? Time provided two answers to that question. First our men, second our machines. We had the best of both, while the Germans, man for man and machine for machine, were not quiet so good. For once they had met their match.
The Battle of Britain lasted for the best part of three months and was divided roughly into four phases. In the first phase the Germans tried to destroy our shipping and attacked our South-Eastern coastal towns and aerodromes. In this they failed, and attributing their failure rightly to our Spitfires and Hurricanes, the enemy next attempted to put out of action our fighter aerodromes and aircraft factories, and so paralyse our defence.
Again our incomparable airmen in their incomparable machines won the day.
Goering turned his rage on London in a final, desperate effort to turn defeat into victory. This attack lasted from the 7th September to the 5th October, during which weeks the Germans made a desperate attempt to destroy London and win the war. They did not win it, London was not destroyed, and so heavy was the toll taken by our Spitfires and Hurricanes of the German bombers, that after the 6th October, these were withdrawn from the fight, and from then onward till the end of the month, when the battle came to an end, the Lutwaffe continued a losing contest with fighters and fighter-bombers alone. They must have known that they were beaten, however. Already they had lost huge numbers of aircraft. Already the name " Spitfire" was a word of fear among the German airmen, and again and again the sight of a force of these little fighters, hurtling through the air, would cause a much larger enemy force to turn tail and run before the battle was engaged.
Reginald Mitchell the man who designed the Spitfire never lived to learn the result of the Battle of Britain, for he died in 1937, two years before the war began. He never knew that, between the 8th August and the 31st October, 1940, Spitfires and Hurricanes shot down 2,375 German aircraft for certain, not counting the hundreds which must have crashed on the way home. But the Germans know, and we know, too, that Reginald Mitchell, sitting at his desk, did as much as any man and more than most to win the Battle for Freedom when he designed the Spitfire, and left that incomparable fighter as a legacy to his country to serve her in her hour of need