Blenheim mk.1(F): winggun and gunpack

[andy bird]

Hi Jerry, & Geoff,

Original drawings are in very poor condition, managed to obtain an A4 photograph. Have suggested of doing an enlarged pull out once all the H/B Coastal Dawn have been sold.

Don't know if you'd be able to view them better on the e-book version.

Kindest Regards

Andy Bird

[bearoutwest]

Thanks for taking time to respond Andy.

I'm getting myself a serious resolution photo/negative scanner for other reasons. It'll give me a chance to try scanning the page and seeing if it can shed more legible details.

I'm glad you wrote the book. It certainly highlights a little trumpetted area of fighter operations. Don't s'pose you'd care to do similar on the regular Fighter Command Blenheim Mk If squadrons?

Regards,
...geoff

[gedburke3]

Dear all,
I recently obtained a report into the design of the Blenheim 1f gun pack.
The attached photographs were part of that report and clearly show the pack and the layout of the guns.
Regards
Gerry

[bearoutwest]

Great photos, thanks for sharing.


Are you able to say what the title of the report is?


...geoff

[gedburke3]

Hi,
The report is by the aeroplane and armament experimental establishment and is dated December 1938.
The title is Blenheim L1424 - installation of 4 Browning guns.
Gerry

[bearoutwest]

Thanks Gerry.


While I've got the Blenheim books out - a few more bits of interest...

From Warner's book The Bristol Blenheim - A Complete History:
- Blenheims that served with the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (just some partial extracts of armament trials)

Martlesham Heath (to 03-09-1939)
Mk.I
K7168 (performance & armament trials)
L1201, L1253, L1495, L8662, L8689 (armament trials)
L1424 (prototype Mk.If) ****
L6594 (performance trials and then 37mm COW cannon trials)
L6787 (twin 20mm cannon trials)

Boscombe Down (from 03-09-1939)
Mk.IV
L4838 (gunnery trials)
V6000 (H2S trials)

- Blenheims that served with RAE at Farnborough
(most of the list does not specify what purpose)
Mk.I
...long list that includes L1424

Mk.IV
L4838, L4843, L4888 (centimetric radar nose)

From Roy C Nesbit's book Coastal Command in Action 1939-1945
- caption (can't scan at present, with scanner buried under Blenheim books...perhaps later):
"A gun pack beneath the fuselage of a Blenheim IVF was modified by Coastal Command in January 1941 to take two Hispano 20-mm cannons. However, the normal armament in the pack was four .303-in Browning machine-guns."
It's not the regular gun pack housing a pair of 20mm Hispanos, it's custom built with cylindrical fairings for each individual Hispano. For those who are familiar with British archival photograph numbers, it's Ref: AIR 15/560. I can't tell from the angle if it's a Mk.IVf or a Mk.I (perhaps L6787).


...geoff

[bearoutwest]

Amazing how many books you can stack on top of a sturdy scanner!

Here's the photo of the twin 20mm Hispano cannon Blenheim.

This is guess-work on my part, but I think this photo (from Roy C Nesbit's book Coastal Command in Action 1939-1945, p32, Ref: AIR 15/560) is of a Blenheim Mk.I, based on the shallow depth of the gun-pack. Pictures of the Blenheim Mk.IVf's show a deeper gun-pack, required due to the deeper chin of the long-nose Blenheims. Major leap of faith, but this is possibly L6787 involved in the twin 20mm cannon trials at Martlesham Heath A&AEE.

...geoff

[andy bird]

Think the images are from an early version manufactured at Southern Railway's Ashford Freight Yard. There were problems with the cartridge ejector shoots, dispensed cartridges got wedged in and weren't able to fall away freely. New drawings were done - originals held at Duxford.

Andy