Originally Posted by
megan
The introduction of the cannon during the BoB had dismal results, usually failing after getting off one or two rounds, that may have been the reason for his opinion at the time. Cannon armed squadrons asked for, and received, their .303 aircraft back. It took sometime to get the technical issues sorted, by which time DB was residing in Germany.
Cannon was trialled on a very few select aircraft in the BoB, as it was still not fully developed.
The meeting with Tuck, Malan, Bader and others took place after the BoB, around December 1940.
By the time of the meeting, Tuck had met with one of the pilots involved in cannon trials, so Tuck had a good understanding of its current stage of development.
Bader was shot down on 9th August 1941, on a mission involving five RAF fighter wings containing several squadrons of Spitfire
VB, armed with cannon. This included 616 squadron, who Bader flew with. IIRC, the only Spitfire V that didn’t have cannon was that flown by Bader, who flew an earlier version, the Spitfire VA.