Why did Spitfires change their guns? (Ft. Jonathan Ferguson)

This is one of Imperial War Museums' most prized possessions. A genuine, airworthy, combat-veteran Spitfire Mk 1. Early Spitfires were initially equipped with eight machine guns. They fired the 303-rifle calibre machine gun round. But much like the Spitfire through its development, not only did it gain things like bigger engines, but also a larger armament. In the case of the 20mm cannon and the .5-inch machine gun.

The story of the Spitfire's armament development is complicated and can even be considered controversial to this day. To help us tell that story we've brought in Jonathan Ferguson of Royal Armouries who's going to help us take an in-depth look at the main weapons of the Spitfire.

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[cav-]

I believe the chap’s full name is “Jonathan Ferguson, Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armouries in the UK, which houses thousands of iconic firearms from throughout history.” Nice seeing him here.

[cageordie]

My late friend Bob Whitney, USMC retired, flew the canon armed version of the F4U Corsair before going on to be a physics professor at some of the best universities in the US. I knew him in his 80s when he lived in Alameda CA. Anyway, he was the officer in charge of testing the gun heaters, and basically took the 50 BMG heater and just slapped it on the 20mm canon. I asked him how well the canon worked in combat, compared to the 50BMG. He said that in his whole war he only saw one Japanese aircraft, so his experience might not be typical. He got the gun sight on target and opened fire and the aircraft immediately exploded. So in his experience it was vastly more effective.

[andrewtaylor]

Excellent to hear about the wing types so seldom mentioned.

[cplpuddingpop]

Jonathan is such a pleasure to listen to! His passion and excitement for the work that he does and knowledge he's accrued is infectious, I enjoy just about any video he's included in.

[johnc]

Outstanding presentation! We liked the .50 caliber BMG "Ma Deuce" in Vietnam, too! Salute to everyone at Duxford from a retired U.S. Navy chief petty officer across the Pond in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. 👍

[matthewbrown]

My father a former RAAF ground engineer & later a Boeing 43 year Workshop Superintendent was a constant Flying Day visitor at the Temora Aviation Museum. He & his brother grew up here & through my father's work with the now defunct Hawker De Havillands presented a set of Blue Prints of one the later versions of the Spitfires. 2 versions of the Spitfires still fly there today. These blue prints have been copies & pawed over & studied by pilots, enthusiasts & spectators.

[jg]

Another excellent high quality presentation IWM and fantastic collaboration with Jonathan at Royal Armouries. Thank you

[malcolmmoy]

More of this please. Subject mater experts discussing important details with original material. Much better than the usual light touch stuff.

[Guy_]

Wow! Great video, and love the collaboration with Jonathan, he's a true gent and very enjoyable to listen to. I love that the IWM is making it's mark on Youtube. More please! :)

[carlday-jyct]

It is amazing how these weapons and aircraft evolved throughout the war. The amount of research and testing into all these different weapons and machines of war is astounding. It really would be something if we could harness the same energy that we have during a war for solving our other problems during peace.

[mattblack]

One of the best presentations on the Spitfire I have ever seen. Well done.

[martentrudeau]

A Legendary Stick and Rudder Man Bob Hoover flew a lot of Spitfires and said they were the best dogfighters, he loved them. He and Chuck Yeager were good buddies. Bob used to tell all kinds stories, I could listen to him for hours.

[Finchy]

That is an OUTSTANDING video. The narration is first class with a "no mess" delivery. I thought I knew a lot about the Spitfire. Now I know, I don't. Thank you so much. Really enjoyed it.

[eddiebruv]

Didn’t German pilots joke that they weren’t really being shot down by the British, they just couldn’t keep flying due to the weight of all the lead in their aircraft! 😂

[markgarin]

My mother carried the plans to final factory location for those guns. A strange admission as a dinner topic forty years after the event

[mpersad]

A terrific video. Excellent narration and use of archive materials. I love this collaboration, and how lucky we are to have these experts and organisations putting their knowledge online, for free, for us all to enjoy and learn from. Top video.

[alancranford]

I read about the cannon versus machine gun controversy during World War Two about 50 years ago. Rifle caliber machine guns worked, for the most part. Cannon had jamming issues because those larger cartridges had enough mass that they'd shift under high G forces.

Twenty years ago I was lucky enough to spend an entire day touring Duxford--and on a slow day when there weren't many other visitors. I got to see what the books told me so many years prior.

A few minutes drive from where I live is the Browning Arms Museum. The prototypes for the .30 caliber and .50 caliber machine guns are on display along with a 37mm aircraft cannon Browning worked on during the First World War. There was no market for that cannon between World War One and John M. Browning's death, so when the US Army Air Corps became interested in that 37mm cannon just before World War Two, Browning wasn't around to refine it and there wasn't enough time or money to make it work. Two aircraft were supposed to carry the 37mm cannon--the P-38 Lightning and the P-39 Airacobra. Other than a few test aircraft the P-38's cannon was the 20mm. The P-39 had some 37mm cannon installed but some P39's and all of the "export model" P-400 had a 20mm cannon. There were plans to install a pair of 37mm cannon in the A-26 Intruder but that didn't happen. Speaking of cannons, the 75mm cannon on some B-25 Mitchell bombers were hand loaded for each shot. Low rate of fire resulted and the more effective B-25 armament proved to be a lot of .50 caliber machine guns.

[dougrobinson]

Compare the Spitfire armament to that of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, or "Jug" as many crews named the. The Jugs had eight .50 BMG M2 machine guns. This made for very effective ground attack capability. It wasn't the most capable fighter, but it was nearly unmatchable in a dive, and was basically a flying gun battery. Very interesting breakdown of the Spitfire's evolution of firepower. Keep these coming, please!

[anonnemo]

A superb, little documentary. Many thanks. I had no idea that we experimented with cannons on Spitfires during the Battle of Britain.

[DoBraveryFPS]

A lot of the "best caliber" depends on what you're shooting at. The RAF were constantly under threat of twin engined bombers, thus 20mm. The Germans faced 4 engine bombers, thus they needed to go up to 30mm.
50 cal sufficed for the US as they primarily faced single engine aircraft, and the occasional twin.