Sunday, 12 July 2020

Impressively Wrong, Even For The 'Mail'...

The nation's most beloved airplane? Well, no. It isn't.

The spotter points out: "These planes are Boulton Paul Defiants. They had no forward-firing guns, their only armament was the four .303 machine guns in the turret. The Spitfire was a single-seat fighter. The defiant had a crew of two and was never a great success."


H/T: Stephen Brown
at

6 comments:

  1. MTG 112 July 2020 at 11:04

    Now this IS unforgivable.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rev. Spooner12 July 2020 at 12:06

    ..and another Spotter writes:

    They have the squadron wrong, too. Squadron code "PS" is 264 Sqdn.

    225 never operated Defiants - they DID have Spitfire, but not until 1943 - so not quite during the BoB!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous12 July 2020 at 14:19

    Just as well I subscribe to the Express :-))

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jason Lynch13 July 2020 at 15:22

    The Defiant was somewhat underrated - it had a few minor successes as well as losses as a day fighter - not disastrous but less effective than conventional fighters.

    It was useful as a nightfighter (especially once fitted with radar), and served on in the unglamorous workhorse role of target tug, but also found use as an electronic-warfare platform supporting Bomber Command (with "Mandrel" noise-jamming or "Moonshine" repeater-jamming gear replacing the gun turret).

    But, a Hurricane or a Spitfire it most definitely is not...

    ReplyDelete
  5. JuliaM26 July 2020 at 05:49

    "Now this IS unforgivable."

    For once we agree, Melv...

    "They have the squadron wrong, too."

    Good grief!

    ReplyDelete
  6. MTG26 July 2020 at 08:12

    'For once we agree...'

    Good grief. Note to self - encouraging her is pointless.

    ReplyDelete