rear-firing pods on Me109

[Appleby]

Originally Posted by F19Gladiator

......which was also recently discussed here at LEMB. I would likewise be very interested to know if there is any credible documentation/image regarding this alleged armament option.
Cheers
Goran

yes I am very interested in find that experimentation
actually , I believe there is a probability (albeit small) that a pod, attached instead of the ventral belly tank, was tried almost once

the mission involved, namely that of a fast recce palne, points to a tactic of speed for escape fighter opposition -- as I have read about in the only report of a downed Me109G-recce, that of Clostermann, and in similar acconunts for Mosquitoes --- a fast race, hence a zero-deflection shoot for the pursuer and of course the same for the quarry

also, an external pod is easy to build and, attached instead of the belly tank, probably wasn'y too mich a trouble for the balance of the plane

and I have see photos documenting a ventral pod for a gun ( 30mm?? I don't remember ) , a forward gun, attached under the belly, firing trough the propeller -- evidently with some syncornization device, a quite more difficult modification to implement


but, of course , this is only to see if there is a rationale behind the idea, even a small one: my personal thought is that the cost, the load and the difficult to use properly were too much for the minimal gain ...


summing all up:
letting aside the usefulness of the device,
do you know if it was ever tried?

TIA