Originally posted by RAM:
No. You stand behind your statement and SOURCE
The day you bring another source here saying that the G10/R5 had wing gondolas I will stop laughing. (But I still will not believe it...note I have said FOUR (4) SOURCES of information on the R6-R5-U4 matter.
You only one. So yours is the books of the All-Mighty-And-Knowing-Gods, huh?
As I said before I indeed have two sources:
Prien & Rodeike states those arguments and
"MESSERSCHMITT BF 109 JA SAKSAN SOTATALOUS" (isbn#951-95688-7-5) by Hannu Valtonen confirms them, so you can stop laughing now. Hannu Valtonen is one of the leading aviation historians/argeologists in Finland and done tons of research and he has my trust when specifically states that Prien & Rodeike's list is more correct than Jean-Claude Merret's.
Well anyways...I have another way to prove you wrong about R6 being the designation for gondola-mounted cannons in G-10s. Gondola-mounted cannons were a field conversion kit for all 109 variants which had it...we both agree on this, right? For example, Valtonen's book has werkenummer-list of all the production G6s built and there isn't a single mention about G-6/R6 in that list (I can post the list if you refuse to believe me). This is obvious because those cannons were installed on the field, not in the factory, and this is factory list I'm talking about. Here is the werkenummer-list of the G-10s which were finished before the war ended:
Mtt GmbH WNr. 130100-130700 123 G-10
Erla WNr. 150500-151088 c. 350 G-10/R6
Erla WNr. 151498-151634 c. 80 G-10/R6
Erla WNr. 151825-151999 c. 100 G-10/R6
Erla WNr. 490130-490399 c. 270 G-10
Erla WNr. 490400-490799*c. 350 G-10/R6
Erla WNr. 491100-491500'c. 370 G-10/R6
WNF WNr. 610300-611099 c. 370 G-10/U4
WNF WNr. 611900-612010 c. 70 G-10/U4
WNF WNr. 612700-613199 c. 210 G-10/U4
WNF WNr. 770100-770399 c. 200 G-10/R2
WNF WNr. 770900-771199 c. 100 G-10/R2
*Probably only 490231, -239, 241 and 244 were G-10/R6s.
'There could have been Bf 109G6/AS-machines in first werkenummer.
So R6 was installed in the factory, gondola-mounted cannons weren't, they were installed in the field.
R6 designation means plane was equipped with PKS 12 single-axis autopilot. You can't just "plug-in" something like this in the field conditions...SO it was installed in the factory and that is why it shows in the werkenummer list.
And RAM, do you honestly believe that about 650 G-10s out of about 2600 planes had gondola-mounted MK 108s? I'm telling you they never came into operational use and U4 designation means that engine-mounted MG 151/20 is replaced with MK 108...no wing cannons.
1Wmaker1
Lentolaivue 34
[This message has been edited by Wmaker (edited 02-01-2001).]