Quote:
Originally Posted by bearoutwest
I don't have Tomas Poruba's work on the K-4. My own passing interest is in the Bf109B, C and D versions. What I do understand is that there is still much discussion on exactly how many K-6's were actually produced and used. There is also some comment on some front-line units removing the two wing mounted cannons to save weight.
I don't question your knowledge. I'm just hoping to learn and understand why you feel the more recent photos may not be cannon mounts?
|
The existence, let alone the production of other K sub-series other than the K-4 is one of the myths that I read and heard since I was a boy (and that's long time ago, believe me...).
As a matter of fact, apart from one or two prototypes or test-beds (the wooden mock-up for the proposed in-wing installation of the 30mm cannon to be used on the K-6 falls into this category), as far as we know today the K-4 was the only
Kurfürst in town.
Even the myth of the two K-14s which were said to have been operational with II./JG 52 has not been proven at all and we have only evidence of K-4 W.Nr. block production series and nothing else.
This said, I cannot prove in any way that those wing structures were not further modified experimental mounts to house MK 108 cannons, I only have a gut feeling that they were for something else, and in over 35 years or research I have learned not to plainly believe, but at least to respect my own gut...
Am I wrong? Maybe, it would not be the first time, but I cannot discard the idea that there could have been a different use to that structures. I have at first theorized cine-cameras, but it seems that the ones Luftwaffe used were ok, so why try new mounts or new cameras? (BTW, the Germans were always improving their stuff, no matter how good it was, so this objection sounds a bit weak to me, but let's accept it).
At any rate, just for the sake of discussion, I simply put forward my opinion, not pretending in any way to be right or to behold the truth.
After all, if we all should always think the same and agree, it would be a boring world, wouldn't it?
P.S. FWIW, I have found online a photo of a what-if model of a K-6 with the wing-blended 30 mm cannon modeled according to what is visible in the mock-up photo (here reversed to ease viewing) and comparing these images with the photo of our "strange" test-bed G-6... I still think that the latter is very different.