Performing & Firepower of the Bristol Beaufighter

[Marechallannes]

Unfortunately I have no informations, how the Bristol Beaufighter performed versus Luftwaffe fighters. :hmm:

I read a book from a nightfighter pilot, but he only described the deadly Mosquito escorts of the night raids versus Germany.

My information aboout antiy-ship operations at the coast of Norway and other costal axis ship travel are very limited.

Were there Beaufighters in North Africa and the Med theater?

How did the Beaufighter perform in air to air combat versus the Axis in Europe?



I know how it performs in a WGF game if you play without altitude. :erk:

The most powerful and comparable Axis planes seems to be Ichikawa's KI-61-KAId.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

There were certainly Beaus in the Med and over the Desert Sven. I have no info on their performance with me, but will look when I look when I get home. Rob.

[csadn]

Unfortunately I have no informations, how the Bristol Beaufighter performed versus Luftwaffe fighters.

Mainly because, for the most part, it didn't -- most Beaus in Europe were Coastal Command attack units, which rarely if ever saw enemy fighters; or night-operations units, which also rarely if ever saw enemy fighters.

[Zoe Brain]

Mainly because, for the most part, it didn't -- most Beaus in Europe were Coastal Command attack units, which rarely if ever saw enemy fighters; or night-operations units, which also rarely if ever saw enemy fighters.
When Coastal Command Beaus did see enemy fighters.... the Beaus didn't return. If a fighter got in front of those 10 guns, it was shredded, but they never did. Take out the reversal card from the deck, and you get a more accurate result.

In January 1943 RAF Coastal Command wrote to the Air Ministry requesting a reduction in the number of operations needed by air crew to complete a tour of duty. They had calculated that only 40 percent of Air-crew survived to the end of their Tour and wanted to increase the survival rate to 50 percent. The situation was far worse in the Beaufighter squadrons, whose task it was to prevent the Luftwaffe from attacking coastal convoys. Here the percentage survival rate was a mere 7 percent.

[Zoe Brain]

I saw an Arado (196) diving down on me, from above and straight ahead, guns firing, and instinctively, I rose up to meet him. With my four cannons and six machine guns all firing, the poor chap hadn't much chance. I think it was a case of who was to be the chicken, as we flew straight towards each other. He pulled back the stick, and cleared the top of my aircraft, but then immediately dived down on to the water, where he crash-landed. Another pilot told me afterwards that he had seen the observer's body, hanging over the side of the aircraft, as he was attempting to get out. The pilot was also killed.

I immediately flew off after the second Arado, which turned tail and fled. I fired several times at it, and saw smoke pouring from it, with pieces flying off the wings and fuselage before I left it, heading down towards the sea. Little did I know that my "scrap" with the Huns would prove my Nemesis!

When we arrived back at Base, my beloved "Z" for Zombie was damaged somewhat. Among other things, an aileron wire had been severed, clean shot through, and I hadn't full wing control. The following day, then, when we went out on our next raid, I was given a brand new aircraft, just delivered to the Squadron, and there hadn't been time even to paint the aircraft identification letters on the fuselage.

We flew out in the same general direction of Cos, Leros and Scarpanto, looking for enemy shipping. Suddenly, a full flight of us was attacked by half-a-dozen ME 109Fs.

Not in true British style, but obeying standing orders implicitly, we turned tail and fled - Beaufighters were really no good against single-engined ME 109s. We were no match for that kind of aggression. Alas and alack, I discovered that the brand-new aircraft I had taken out, was alarmingly slow. Whilst the rest of the flight drew rapidly ahead of me, I dropped back just as rapidly (obviously) and became a true "tail-arse Charlie". I banged desperately on the throttles, hoping to get past some imaginary stoppage and put about 50 knots extra airspeed on the cow, but destiny loomed.

The ME's took it in turn to sit on my tail, and use me for target practice. At 20 feet over the wave tops, I jinked and jinked. "Tell me when they're lining up, Bob", I called to my observer, who was cursing in the back seat, and firing vainly with his Vickers 'pop-gun' when the occasion presented itself. He dutifully told me when the time came. Meanwhile, I flew straight and level at best top speed. As soon as the next attack came, I jinked and jinked once more. (Violent movements of the aircraft controls to produce uneven flight and spoil the enemy chances of getting straight shots).

What seemed like an age passed. I think it was all of ten minutes. A couple of the enemy planes ran out of ammo. Eventually, thick smoke filled the cockpit. I saw flames licking over the whole of the starboard wing. I throttled back on that side, found the fire extinguisher button, and pressed hard. It made no difference. We flew on, and still continued burning. http://www.theoddbods.org/Yarns/walters_war/walters_war_ch03.htm

[Zoe Brain]

Typical kills by Med Beaus: from 603 sdrn:

11 Sept 43
2 Ar 196 dam: u/k

24 Sept 43 (first confirmed Beaufighter victories for unit)
1 Ju 52 dest: G.M.L. Doube (RAAF)
1 Ju 52 dest: Chater
1 Ju 52 dest: Megone
1 Ju 52 dam: Chater

19 Oct 43
1 Ar 196 dest: Watters
1 Ar 196 prob: u/k

6 Nov 43
1 Ar 196 dest: K.I.E. Hopkins (RAAF)
1 Ar 196 dam: u/k

7 Nov 43
1 Ar 196 dest: u/k

9 Nov 43
2 Ar 196 dest: u/k

10 Nov 43
1? Bf 109 dest: Watters

16 Nov 43
1 Ar 196 dest: u/k
1 Ar 196 dam: u/k

16 Jan 44 (maybe confused with claims on 27 Jan 44)
3 Ar 196 dest: u/k
2 Ju 52 dest: u/k

22 Jan 44
1 Ar 196 dest: u/k

27 Jan 44
1 Ar 196 dest: Pringle
1 Ar 196 dest: Edgar
2 Ar 196 dest: P.G. Spooner (RAAF) or Rooks
1 Ju 52 dest: Edgar
1 or 2 Ju 52 dest: Pringle
1 Ju 52 dest: P.G. Spooner (RAAF) or Rooks

22 Feb 44
1 Ar 196 dam: Pringle

14 May 44
2 Ju 52 dest: shared between Simpson (RNZAF) & u/k
1 Ar 196 dam: Simpson (RNZAF)

1 Jun 44
1 Ar 196 dest: u/k
1 Bf 109 dest: u/k
1 Ar 196 prob: u/k
2 Ar 196 dam: u/k

23 Jun 44
1 enemy a/c dest: de Bouneviale

5 Sept 44
1 enemy a/c dam: u/k


Another set:
13/14 Jan '43 *one FW200 destroyed Maison Blanche area Beaufighter VII, 153 Sq.
15/16 Jan '43 one Ju88 destroyed Algiers Beaufighter VII, 153 Sq.
29/30 Jan '43 one Ju88 destroyed W Cape Matifou Beaufighter VII, 153 Sq.
11 Mar '43 (day) one Ju88 damaged over the sea Beaufighter VII, 153 Sq.
22/23 May '43 two S79s destroyed N African coast Beaufighter VII, 153 Sq.

[csadn]

Typical kills by Med Beaus: from 603 sdrn:[...]

Uh-huh -- and how many fighters were in that count? Two. The rest were bombers, transports, or floatplane recon birds.

Hence my remark about "the Beaus didn't see fighters" -- if they did, it meant Things had Gone Disastrously Wrong.

[Honza]

to Sven: Last Tuesday Sasa flew a Beau against and me and Kubajs with one Bf109 each. Altitude rules on as usual. Kubajs had gone around in a respectfully broad circle and made it right behind the beau. With some luck he downed the poor beast in 2-3 short range shots. Sasa didn't do immelman as he was expecting Kubajs to expect him to do immelman, haha.

By the way the game before that was really exciting for Stuka lovers (= you). Me and Sasa flew Stukas against moving targets -> T-34 tanks. Two mats, altitude rules on. We had one Bf109 as an escort and 3 intercepting Russian fighters. We both managed to get into a perfect bombing position. The tanks were moving for one ruler width each turn, following a path on the mat. Also they could move their turrets before the movement step (they had their 360 fire range divided into 4 sectors). Unfortunately Sasa was downed during the vertical dive as he drew a replacement damage token that was way worse than the previous one. I was downed on the way home and our escort guy who was a complete beginner went down to alt 1 and destroyed the other tank (2 bursts). Unfortunately he was downed by the Russian Hurry ("Urry", yeah a stereotype joke, there we go...) on the way home. Excellent game.

[Marechallannes]

Jan it's hard work to fool the Beaufighter and not to get in close range of his armament on the table.

:thumbsup:

For the Stuka I still need revenge for my unsuccesful bombing of the English coast. ;)




Zoe, thank you for the detailed information!