If the .303 was so ineffective can you please explain the losses inflicted on the Luftwaffe during the summer of 1940 by the Hurricane Squadrons of Southern Command RAF.

Thankyou.

Will

The RAF did not officially recognise kills so any claim was excepted. Any pilot claiming a shared kill, got a half a kill. So if 6 pilots claimed the same plane, 3 German planes were reported downed. The RAF counted and picked up every German plane that crashed during BoB. Between Aug8 and Sept 11, they claimed 1631 kills with 582 probables, yet only had 316 wrecked Luftwaffe planes. The Luftwaffe did not consider a claim unless there was at least one other eye witness. If more than one pilot claimed the same plane, the unit got one kill and neither pilot received anything. It is interesting to note that German unit Kill claim records and RAF official British Plane losses are nearly indentical. The British knew these claims were wild exagerations, but needed the moral boost to their people on the brink of defeat. All the British had to do was keep Germany from having total control of the skies until the weather turned to bad for a German invasion. That was much easier than trying to eliminate the RAF. The Luftwaffe almost did it,but Churchill starting the city wars saved the RAF and Britain. Had the Germans not turned to bomb London and finished the RAF as they should have, things would have been different. Churchill's bold move saved England and Hitler fell for it. Hitler snatched defeat from the jaws of victory!
Wulfmann

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'Piece of Cake' was a series written in the 1950's by someone who didn't even take part in the conflict.

.303 was used because the round was used in the British service rifle and so was being churned out by the million anyway. Also the browning .30 cal machinegun was easily converted to .303 caliber.

The .303 from WWI would either be the Lewis or Vickers K machine guns. The Lewis gun, which was water cooled wasn't used in aircraft. The Vickers K was used only as a rear gun on aircraft like the Swordfish and NOT Spitfires and Hurricanes.

And during the battle for france the british fighter pilots found out that the eight .303 machine guns were more than suitable at a range of 260 yards or less.

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Douglas Bader prefered the eight .303 option and had the only Spitfire MkVa in the tangmere wing because of that.

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Had his 352 kills been on the western front then it probably would have been less than 100 kills. We all know that the eastern aircraft were cannon fodder to the 109's and 190's intill the La-5.

The effective range of a MG-151 20MM may be 1,000 yds, but not the short barreled open bolted FF used on the 109E-3 and 4s during BoB. They had less range thean the 303 and the pilots relied more on their 2 8MM Mausers. With only two of them, but allot of ammo, they did the job, because the pilots were good enough to adapt. Had the British tested the 20MMFF sooner, they would not have had such a high opinion as they later admitted.

Erich Hartmann was still in school during BoB. He was not in Russia for the "easy kills" but faced a determined, well trained and equiped Russian foe and earned his kills. He also shot down 7 US P-51Ds. In one engagement, he downed 5 and outmanuvered the rest of the 7 survivors until he ran out of fuel and had to bail.
When in Soviet prison he was tauted as the greatest fighter pilot by Soviet officials for his kill record, but said he was not the highest scoring pilot. He said Hans Marsailles shot down 158 British planes and since a British plane equals 3 Russian planes, that made Hans the top scoring pilot. This infuriated the Russians (His intent). While funny, it is untrue. the Russians were quite good in the air, but they were being measured against some of the world's best.
In 1944 over Germany most US pilots faced young poorly trained kids. They never faced the tougher large groups as the Russians did.
Wulfmann

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Oh well, my theory shot down in flames!