Originally Posted by Canberra Man  The early short nosed Blenheim was found wanting. Under powered, one gun in the turret, one side mounted in the nose fired by the pilot, hopeless. They even tried to make a fighter of it by producing a meccano style bolt on gun pack, but with no increase in power, was even more hopeless. But then the light dawned. The nose was extended, more armament, more power, but it still was not a viable bomber. But, then, the fuselage was deepened, the wings were moved mid position to give a bigger bomb bay to carry torpedes, bombs or mines and became the Beaufort, an ideal anti shipping intruder and was well liked by the crews.
Then came the next mod, short nose, four cannon, four machine guns, still the ability to carry a torpedo. it became the Beaufighter. With airbourne radar, it became feared by night bombers and shipping, because, now the airbourne rocket had come of age. The Japs used to call it whispering death, because, throttled back approaching a target in the jungle, it could not be heard. |