Fighter ammunition

[Juha]

Nonny

the breeches of Beau's 20mm were under floor rather long way behind the pilot and rather near the navicator's post, so the navigator didn't need to squeeze past the pilot in order to reload the Hispanos. But the reloading wasn't easy especially if the Beau was twisting. So anyway the belt loading made the life much easier to Beau navigators.

Juha

[Marcelo]

The magazine for the Messerschmitt Bf-109F-2 that was the first used the belt fed heavy machine gun Mauser MG-151/15 allowed a belt of 200 round of the 15x96 ammo.
Then in the version F-4 with the introduction of the Mauser Mg-151/20 20 mm canon the capacity of the magazine descend slightly to 180 rounds, although very often even less ammo such as 150 round where loaded.

In the late G-6s/G-10/K-4 versions was also available the Reihnmetall MK-108 30 mm, for bomber hunting business, the Messers magazine only could hold 65 rounds, just enough for a 6,2 second burst of this heavy canon.

[George Hopp]

The radio/radar operator in the Bf 110 C through F also had the task of replacing the ammunition drums for the lower nose MG-FFs and MG-FF/Ms. And, once the Schrage Muzik MG-FF/Ms were installed at the rear of the crew enclosure, the rear gunner had a similar task.