Author Topic: Hurricane question (Read 584 times)

ramzey · « **on:** December 24, 2003, 02:00:58 PM »

unfortunly my monography left in my home
so maybe somone will know

since when photocameras (photo-mg) was installed on hurricane mk1

regards
ramzey

rogerdee · « **Reply #1 on:** December 25, 2003, 04:46:27 PM »

as far as I know cameras were fitted to most of the front line fighters as they become operational.They were used in france in september 1939 with I think no1 squadroon

Replicant · « **Reply #2 on:** December 25, 2003, 05:14:28 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by rogerdee
as far as I know cameras were fitted to most of the front line fighters as they become operational.They were used in france in september 1939 with I think no1 squadroon

85 and 87 Sqn were first in France followed by 1 and 73 Sqns. 1 Sqn was the first to claim a kill though.

As for the gun camera, I can't find any reference to it at the moment but I'll continue looking.

ramzey · « **Reply #3 on:** December 25, 2003, 05:22:16 PM »

ty!

im most inerested about how popular gun cameras was during BoB, as tool to confirm shot down enemy planes. From that what i read it was not standard equipment

Angus · « **Reply #4 on:** December 26, 2003, 01:23:04 PM »

Sadly,not so much of Gun Camera evidence lives today.
I have however had the fortune of looking through their archives at the IWM in London. Cool films of P51's shredding 190's, and Tempests shredding trucks.
There were some from the BoB there as well, so they must have been used.
After revising the true scores of the BoB, Fighter command did not accept claims for a kill unless the enemy aircraft either had a bailout, disintegration, or a crash landing, - witnessed or filmed.
That suggests that gun cams were either not fully reliable or not standard equipment everywhere in the BoB.

Tony Williams · « **Reply #5 on:** December 29, 2003, 04:53:57 AM »

I have read that a problem with the British gun cameras is that they stopped filming as soon as the gun trigger was released, so didn't catch any later bailouts, disintegrations etc.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and Discussion forum

Angus · « **Reply #6 on:** December 29, 2003, 05:13:49 AM »

I am pretty sure they changed it later on with a seperate/extra cam. trigger. I'll try to look it up

Replicant · « **Reply #7 on:** December 29, 2003, 05:32:33 AM »

Tony prolly has it right, I was reading Tempest V pilot notes and it states that the gun camera only operates whilst the trigger is depressed. So unless the camera has a roll on feature to carry on filming for the next 5 seconds or something?

HoHun · « **Reply #8 on:** December 29, 2003, 06:17:36 AM »

Hi Tony,

>I have read that a problem with the British gun cameras is that they stopped filming as soon as the gun trigger was released, so didn't catch any later bailouts, disintegrations etc.

From a couple of Pilot's Notes, I'd say it it was typical to have an additional pushbutton on the control column for operation of the "camera gun" (British terminology :-) without firing any actual guns.

Additional cockpit items were an aperture switch and an exposure meter for the camera.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

Replicant · « **Reply #9 on:** December 29, 2003, 06:49:25 AM »

I would have thought that the aperture/exposure would just be used if it's really light or dark, or if it was an air target or ground target.

HoHun · « **Reply #10 on:** December 29, 2003, 08:59:19 AM »

Hi Replicant,

>I would have thought that the aperture/exposure would just be used if it's really light or dark, or if it was an air target or ground target.

Primary function might have been to adapt the aperture setting according to the film type. That could have been done directly at the camera on installing the film, though.

Other than that, I'd guess you'd only have needed to select "sunlight" or "clouds" like on cheap consumer cameras :-)

The exposure meter just counts how much film has been used.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

Angus · « **Reply #11 on:** December 29, 2003, 11:27:37 AM »

I do recall the tale from a RAF pilot who downed a 190, then took an extra pass over the pilot (who had bailed out and was rolling up his chute) just for a camera shot. The German pilot actually waved at the plane heading straight for him!
The plane was a P51B, and the date was 24th of june 1944. Squadron was no. 65.