More likely a mix of Unified and Metric, if BL. BMC - different. Most of the engines, etc BL used were designed before they were formed and used Unified. It would make little sense to re-engineer for another thread.
My father's 1970 Hillman Avenger needed two sets of spanners to work on it. I cannot recall which two types they were, but the engine needed one set and the rest of the car the other.
Well the whole issue of firewpwer was predicated on a completely false set of assumptins that unravelled as soon as combat in te real sense happened.
The thory was you atackecet at 800 yards with 8 machine guns, and that wold be enough to take the buggers ouit. In fact it soon became clear from 'enemy attacked and driven away eastwards' tat harmonising ti 200 yards or less, and concentrating firepower in certain areas - wing roots, fuel tanks and the pilot, was the key.
And when the germans equipped with cannon, that one canon shell was likely to do a lot more damage then 50 303 bullets.
There is some devastating footage of IIRC a Tempest doing ground attack on lorries and so on with cannon fire. Things simply disintegrate when hit.
I can be thankful that the Luftwaffe continued to use at least some machine guns. My father was hit by a bullet from one of their guns, in the chest, just above his heart.
We have the mangled pair of scissors that just happened to be in his pocket at the time. This was the worst (maybe even the only) injury he received in 67 ops over occupied territory, plus flying service in India, Burma, etc. Had that been a canon shell... well, I might not have been able to be thankful...
If it had been a cannon it probably wouldn't have hit him, the machine gun bullet must have been pretty spent or they were extremely good scissors.
They certainly looked to have been good quality, solid Sheffield steel. Sort of kitchen scissor size. (Why he had them with him, I have no idea.) The two parts were completely separated. Each curled round into a near-semi-circle. Some parts discoloured and lost a bit of chrome.
It seems entirely likly that the bullet had passed through some part of the structure to get to him - possibly a Wellington or, more likely, a Lancaster. Probably wireless operator's position.
My father still has the .300 (ish) calibre bullet his mechanic found in his seat after a mission over Korea in the 50s.
Though of course it may have been ground fire.
Andy
Probably just an old soldiers tale.
The message from Bruce contains these words:
My half inch socket set was bought in 1964 along with a set of open ended spanners. IIRC the socket set alone cost £12 which was a horrendous price in those days. Both sets covered AF and Whitworth. I don't think I bought a single metric spanner in the next 10 years.
I missed the earlier part of this thread and Dennis lives in my killfile anyway but on the Hurricane/Spitfire /Battle of Britain controversy it is my understanding that the Spitfires were targeted at the fighter escorts as they were faster and more manoeuvrable than the Hurricanes and the Hurricanes were targeted at the bombers.
Which bit?
All of it.
I have seen the scissors mahny times. I have talked to the person it happened to, his wife, his sister. Do you think they all colluded in the story? I can think of no other explanation for the scissors looking as they do.
I was pleased to see that modern Meccano still uses a 3/32 Whit thread. even if it is made in France. It's all compatible with my old stuff from the 70's and the even older collections that I've picked up.
They've gone back to square nuts (shame) and put hex sockets for allen keys in the head which tear out as soon as you try to tighten them. Hmmm perhaps they've mis-applied the term "cheesehead".
Longer-lived vehicles used 3 thread standards (and of course BA too). UNF & Metric were obvious and needed spanners, but coarse threads into cast iron could remain as Whit for a very long time, although not often needing to be worked on at the garage-mechanic level.
That was in general true, but a hurricane by virtue of its wing area could out turn a ME109, and conversely the ME109 was much faster..the Spitfire reduced the differential, but the main advantage the RAF had, was its radar and the fact that the fight was over home soil. The ME's were always over hostile ground so a loss of a plane meant the the effective loss of a pilot, and their ability to stay in escort duty was marginal at best.
A situation which reversed in the latter parts of the war, until the longer range Mustangs Thunderbolts and Lightnings arrived, and the large
4 engined bombers able to carry decent defensive armament were available. Germany never had any 4 engined bombers AFAICR. Their response was the massive and highly effective deployment of flak guns.
Oh, they were most cetrainly hit by something, but a full velocity 303 round would have punched them out the otherside of his body. Almost certainly a ricochet or piece of generic shrapnel. Not quite sure, but most pilot armour plating was at least 1/4" steel plate.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "dennis@home" saying something like:
I don't see why you would disbelieve it. Given the millions of bullets flying around, there were some near-miraculous escapes from death. Of course, a relative of Uri Geller might have been sitting in the seat next to Rod's father - that makes much more sense.
They had several, albeit not widely used. This was largely because they had France as an operational base and far shorter ranges to contend with. The only majorly significant (in impact) one was the Condor, which being used for naval aviation did require range and endurance.
The most amazing thing. This is TRUE. I was on a ship in the channel and saw that Uri Geller was there too. A little later there was a total eclipse. That guy is amazing.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Rod saying something like:
Uncanny. Uri Geller was on the telly when I found out a mate of mine was bent. Co-incidence? I think not.
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