My third cousin was Pilot Officer Arthur Charles Geary, DFC, a wireless operator/air gunner with 211 Squadron on the Blenheim Mk I. I am in the process of writing a short article about his career, that was sadly brief as, before even being able to receive his DFC, he died in the infamous Easter Sunday raid on13 April 1941. He was in the leading Blenheim attacking German troop movements in the Monastir Gap in northern Greece. All six of the formation were destroyed by Bf 109s and only two of the eighteen crew survived.
My question is where the WOP/AG actually sat. On the cutaway by Mike Badrocke:
https://sobchak.wordpress.com/tag/cutaways/
the gunner’s seat is indicated, but did he occupy it (maybe it swivelled?) to access the radio? Or did he have another seat for his WOP duties? Where indeed was the radio and what would the equipment be?
Also, on this same cutaway the turret is equipped with a single 303 Browning. But Wikipedia says that in the Mark I it was a 303 Vickers.
Thanks if you can help.
Laurence
By: l.garey - 11th November 2020 at 10:17
Ant.H and Walter 63: thanks for your replies. I’ll incorporate the details in my final version of the story about my cousin. I am amazed at how crowded that radio/turret area was! I also got some information from Don Clark www.211squadron.org with a photograph of the installation in the Mark I.
www.211squadron.org/blenheim_armament.html#VGO
When I was an ATC cadet in the 1950s I was lucky enough to get lots of trips in Lincolns at nearby Upwood. One of my favourite places, if I couldn’t get up front, was in the rear turret, which seemed quite spacious, but the Blenheim obviously was another kettle of fish. My admiration for my cousin goes up one more notch.
Laurence
By: Walter 63 - 11th November 2020 at 09:45
Hi Laurence,
Always good to see Blenheim related questions – my all time favourite aircraft!
In the Blenheim the Wop/AG only had the turret seat to perform both his AG and Wop duties. The radio installation is located in the back of the fuselage, just behind the gun turret an the poor Wop/AG had to operate the radio (wireless installation in contemporary language :)) reaching through all the bits and pieces that comprised the turret. Poor ergonomics to say the least but we know that crew ergonomics were not ranking high on the aircraft designers priority list in those days.
I suppose he could have traversed the turret to the beam position to have somewhat better access to the radio controls but still… Note the turret only traversed over 180° so it could not be completely “turned around”.
In its initial form the Blenheim’s turret was equipped with the Vickers “K” Gun, also know as the Vickers Gas Operated gun or VGO, a drum fed machine gun with a high rate of fire, similar in appearance to the much older Lewis gun. In fact, it was possible to fit a Lewis gun to the turret as I have seen in some photos.
Next step was a twin VGO installation but this appears to have been quite rare and so far I’ve only seen a single photo of a Blenheim so equipped. And after that we go to the final turret version (on the Mk I and Mk IV Blenheims that is, the Mk V sported a completely different mid-upper turret) equipped with twin belt fed Browning .303 guns.
Finally, the Blenheim did have a single .303 Browning in the port wing, aimed and fired by the pilot.
Feel free to send me a PM for more details.
Cheers,
Walter
By: Ant.H - 11th November 2020 at 09:44
Cometguy, yes the wing-mounted Browning was standard.
I’m by no means an expert on Blenheims, but being as nobody else has commented…
The wireless sets appear to have been mounted aft of the turret, ie. in the rear fuselage between the turret and the tail. With a bit of Googling I’ve found reference to T.1154 (transmitter) and R.1155 (receiver) being fitted, although this was to the Bisley/Blenheim Mk.V.
As for turrets, there were different turret types used as production went on, all of them Bristol designs. B.I, II, III and IIIa (semi-retractable, single or twin Vickers K), B.IV (twin Browning) used on Blenheim Mk.IV and lastly the distinctive B.X turret on the Mk.V/Bisley (twin Browning).
As far as I’m aware, the fuselage seat was a kind of safety seat for take-off, landing and emergencies.
By: cometguymk1 - 11th November 2020 at 07:19
I’m afraid I cant help but I was surprised to see an in wing machine gun on the drawing. Is this a normal fit that I’ve ignored all this time?
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November 10, 2020 at 2:44 pm