My bold.
It was done at least once as an emergency expedient, by the RAAF during the final days in the defence of Singapore in WWII.
However, when the troops were reconciled to it*, considerable effort was put into preparing the ground defences; machine guns were taken from crashed aircraft and mounted on tripods made out of parts of crashed Blenheim air frames …
http://www.warbirdforum.com/secret3.htm para 42
I’m not quite sure what you mean here.
Do you mean “why did the B-17 (not -15) Flying Fortress have .30 cal (not .303) as well as .50 cal?” If so, the answer is that they didn’t, for long. The .50 was so much more effective than the .30 that the latter was soon only retained in places where the .50 wouldn’t fit.
What do you mean by “newly adapted weapons and calibres”? The Brownings in both .30 and .50 were quite old designs by WW2, their origins dating back to the end of WW1. The firing rate of the .50 was improved somewhat by WW2, but not by a great amount. Ammunition was also improved in both .30 and .50 calibre - mainly, with more effective incendiaries (and later, the M8 .50 API).
The .50 cal remained effective, but as a bomber defensive gun it was not very efficient. The actual shoot-downs were probably only about 10% of the claims.
It was an unpalatable truth for both the RAF and the USAAF that the complex, heavy and expensive multi-gun turrets, from which so much had been expected, were incapable of fulfilling their primary purpose - enabling unescorted bombers to fight through to the target and back with acceptable losses.
Close enough with the machines, but the .50 cal’s were still used right up until the light 7.62 machine gun was adapted, and you are right with the perentage shoot downs, but the .30 caliber such as the .308 or the .303 calibers were still used in preference to the .50 caliber machine guns. with a higher load rate, fire rate and effectiveness.
^^^
Err, Tony is right.
When exactly was the “light 7.62 machine gun” adapted for aircraft use?
You also find that the .303" Browning was never used in the B17 flying Fortress. Ever.
Stoatman,
Didn’t the RAF operate a handfull of B-17 in Coastal Command and Bomber Command? I’m not sure, but they could have been equipped with .303 Brownings. But the American ones, definitely not!
Jan
^^^
possibly, I wouldn’t know. Given that the question was about American ones, I didn’t consider the tiny handful of coastal command ones.
The Avro Lancaster
Considered Britains’s greatest bomber of World War 2, the Avro Lancaster was the main aircraft used for night assault on Germany. With four engines allowing the plane to fly at 462 km/h (287 mph), this heavy bomber delivered a bigger bombload than any other plane in Europe - 6350kg (14,000lbs).
The Lancaster was well designed, so well that only minor changes were made before production started and then surged ahead through World War 2.
Type: seven-seat heavy bomber
Powerplant: 4x 1,390hp (1,460hp with max boost) Merlin 20 or 22
Service Ceiling: 7467m (24,492ft)
Maximum Speed: 287mph (462km/h)
Range: 4075km (2530 miles) with 3175kg (7000lbs) bombs; 2700 km (1660 miles) with full load (6350kg/14,000lbs of bombs)
Armament: nine 7.7mm (.303 cal.) Browning machine guns
Dimensions: Span: 31.09 m (102 ft.)
Lenght: 21.18 m (69 ft.)
Height: 6.25 m (20 ft.)
so the avero Lancaster bombers had the 303 browning machine guns, i always get the B-17’s and the Lancasters mixed up, due to both were produced together but one was used in day the other as a night bomber
YR-13/H-13/OH-13 Series Sioux
light observation helicopter
(1946) The Bell (model 47) H-13 Sioux, with a crew of three, was one of the most popular light utility helicopters ever built. The Bell model 47 was produced continuously from 1946 to 1973, and in other countries through 1976. Produced in 20 different configurations, with model numbers ranging from A to T, the Bell model 47 was used in 40 countries. The combined total of commercial and military versions of this series was 5,000. The U.S. Army Air Force procured it’s first YR-13 (model 47B) in December 1946. The OH-13 had a cruising speed of 70 mph (60 knots). The Sioux could be armed with twin M37C .30 Cal. machine guns on the XM1 armament subsystem or twin M60C 7.62mm machine guns on the M2 armament subsystem.
I think they replaced the bren for the Vickers gun because it can hold more ammo in a belt then a magazine and the vickers has a higher rate of fire I think.
In what? Neither the Bren nor the Vickers was used in WW2 RAF aircraft.
The old memory is not what it was, but I’m sure we had .30 Browning fitted as co-ax on the Centurion, and possibly also on the commanders mount, though I cannot be sure on that point. A very effective MG it was, but it had a tendency to get through barrels at a high rate when you had an over enthusiastic gunner.(2 second burst? What’s one of them then?)
Yes, it’s come back to me, the commanders mount did have a .30
On a side note:
There were plenty of Bren’s converted to 7.62NATO & some were used in Op. Granby.
I had a shoot with one converted to 7.62x54r whilst over in the US for a 3 gun match last month: Accurate but the odd chambering (Russian 7.62 reamer shorter than .303) split most of the case necks.
I’m a total leftie, so I had a “slight” problem finding the sights until I swapped shoulders. 
Dat’s me vif da Bren in me new Avatar:-)
Also as a side note, please update your avatar to a WW2 related one.
Thanks!
The pictured Bren was manufactured at Enfield Lock in 1941 & probably “did its bit”.
I’ll have to see what I can find…
I know Topor, it’s debatable. But someone might take a picture of oneself in front of - let’s say - a Sherman tank. And to upload as an avatar…
I know what happened to many thousands of them in the early 1960’s.
They, along with Stens, arrived by the trainload for smelting, week after week, at Round Oak Steelworks in Brierley Hill, Dudley. (Now The Merry Hill Shopping Centre).
Local kids would filch numbers of these from the standing trucks and temporarilly dump them in the shallows of the nearby Fens Pool till the 'heat ’ died down!
Each gun, and they were .303" Brownings*, had been cut with a burner at the Muzzle Recoil Intensifier, halfway along the barrel, through the feed-assembly and continuing down the left-hand receiver plate. The burning areas had sustained severe rusting after exposure, but other parts were still protected by grease.
The Stens would be cut at the muzzle, bolt/ejection-port area, sear and trigger-group fire-selector area.
So there it is, many of these weapons became car bodies, gas-stoves and the like!
FC
I wonder why nobody considered the reason for the higher ROF of aircraft-mounted .30" Brownings: apparently, to save weight, the moving parts (bolts, springs etc.) as well as the receiver bodies, were made from lighter-grade metal. I doubt they’d last very long as infantry weapons.
Cheers,
Cliff