Spitfire MkIB

‘Initial trials with the cannon were not encouraging, with frequent stoppages caused by the wing’s flexing while manoeuvring during an attack. An asymmetrical stoppage would result in the aircraft being slewed from its course due to the recoil of the operating cannon and thus spoiling the pilot’s aim. The first recorded operational sortie by a cannon-armed Spitfire took place on January 13th 1940 when A Heinkel 111 was attacked. Hits were observed before the cannon jammed, but they were not enough to destroy the Heinkel, which was finished off by an aircraft with standard armament.’

From Robert Humphreys’ The Supermarine Spitfire: a comprehensive guide for the modeller.

It seems that 19 Squadron exchanged its cannon armed Spits ‘during the Battle of Britain’ (doesn’t say when) at the request of the CO. Modifications to the 1b (so called since March 1940) continued and 92 Squadron were issued with a revised, cannon+machine gun armed 1b in November 1940.

Hi Daz
In ‘Birth of a legend’ by Jeffrey Quill he says…
First spitty with cannons flew Dec 1939
1b delivered to 19 sqdn from Aug 1940
These a/c had a drum feed system for ammo and had many stoppages.
The later installation was belt fed(mk 5b onwards)

If you haven’t already read it, Brian Lanes book ‘Spitfire’ (or Dilip Sakars Spitfire Squadron) has some good first hand stuff regarding the Mk1Bs, as it is about 19 Squadron and was written during the war.

Does anyone have any more info on the operational use of the Spitfire IB by 19 Squadron during the Battle of Britain? The books don’t say much, and for once Google doesn’t come up with a lot of info, either.

:confused:

IIRC not a lot due to problems getting the cannon to work properly (jams, freezing, asymmetric recoil due to one cannon firing and the other not etc.). 19 sq were re-equipped with standard Mk1a Spits and the 1b aircraft went to an OTU.

I’ll check my sources when I get the chance unless someone gets there first. There’s a little bit in the SAM publications datafile.