Originally posted by Ack-Ack
Didn't the Spitfire Vc have the 4x 20mm cannons? IIRC, most had 2 cannons removed not because of unreliability with the cannons but rather for performance sake. Unlike the Vb, the Vc had the universal wing that was able to take 4x 20mms quite well.
ack-ack
Spit Vc could carry 4 cannon. In practice it didn't as the weight penalty was too great on performance and they figured if you couldn't hit it with 2 cannon , you weren't gonna hit it with 4.
The only place I've seen Spits V using 4 cannons was as a ground attack bird in Italy with 2 SAAF Squadron. They also still had the large tropical filter under the nose too so they would have been not the best performing Spit V. That being said, since they were lugging bombs and hitting ground targets, not dogfighting, it made sense.
But that's one squadron out of many to use the 4 cannons. It was not a common occurance at all and as much of a Spit fan as I am, I'd not want to see it in AH. There are other Spits I'd rather see first....Spit XIIs for example. More of them in combat then 2 cannon Spit Vs
