Spitfire RED TAPE

[-TBC-AeroAce]

Probably the pickiest thing I will ever post but:

 

Can we please have the red tape over the guns sealed before they are fired instead of always with holes in as they are now.

 

I don't want dirt in my guns and I don't want them to freeze and jam before I get to fire them.

 

HASH TAG GAME BREAKER

Edited February 15, 2018 by AeroAce

[Finkeren]

Did they even use that tape in VVS service?

[-TBC-AeroAce]

No idea but I want it all the same!!!

[unreasonable]

Plenty of red tape in a command economy, but it hardly ever gets to where it is needed.

 

I would guess that it probably was not used, but hard to be sure. There are only a few pictures of Soviet Spitfires around, and apart from one showing them being prepared for Soviet service by RAF erks, there are no visible patches, but then again not many clearly visible leading edges. Perhaps paper vodka bottle labels were used instead.

 

However, now we have BoBo in our sights, this pressing issue must be addressed.

[-TBC-AeroAce]

I don't care if VVS used it or not I want it as I often pretend I'm flying for the RAF lol.

 

I'm an RAF pilot on loan to the VVS and I make sure my flight mechanic puts the god darn tape on !!!

Edited February 15, 2018 by AeroAce

[Dakpilot]

Comrade....

 

come into my bunker for a minute

 

you are sure you want to shoot glorious RED tape!

 

just sign these papers for transfer to IL-2 squadron 

 

AS REAR GUNNER

 

Cheers, Dakpilot

[Danziger]

Well there are quite a few RAF default skins for it...

[busdriver]

Comrade....

 

come into my bunker for a minute

 

you are sure you want to shoot glorious RED tape!

 

just sign these papers for transfer to IL-2 squadron 

 

AS REAR GUNNER AS A WHEEL CHOCK

 

Cheers, Dakpilot

 

Fixed that for ya...

[Gambit21]

I don't care if VVS used it or not I want it as I often pretend I'm flying for the RAF lol.

 

A teacup holder is vastly more important than isn't it?

[Jabo_68*]

Probably the pickiest thing I will ever post but:

 

Can we please have the red tape over the guns sealed before they are fired instead of always with holes in as they are now.

 

I don't want dirt in my guns and I don't want them to freeze and jam before I get to fire them.

 

HASH TAG GAME BREAKER

Ah ha, so that's why I can't shoot straight!

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

Spitfire photos are unclear, but all Hurricane photos from the Soviet Union show the holes in the gun ports on parked aircraft.

[unreasonable]

True AFAIK - but some of them show the tape. It has been shot through. So maybe if you got a lend lease Spitfire or Hurricane you could expect it to have the tape when delivered but not renewed as per RAF procedures.  Bad luck for OP.

 

http://www.pewteraircraft.com/OTHER%20AIRFORCES/HURRICANE%20IIB%20RUS/Hurricane%20IIB%20rusian.htm

[ZachariasX]

The red tape was less important fou „our“ Spit as the Russian fron was more low altitude flying. They put on the tape as the MG are open breech and thus got excessively cooled by the airstream through the barrel. Putting a sticker on the hole just kept the guns warmer. But at low altitude, they didn‘t need to bother that much. So they might have well done without it.

True AFAIK - but some of them show the tape. It has been shot through. So maybe if you got a lend lease Spitfire or Hurricane you could expect it to have the tape when delivered but not renewed as per RAF procedures.  Bad luck for OP.

 

http://www.pewteraircraft.com/OTHER%20AIRFORCES/HURRICANE%20IIB%20RUS/Hurricane%20IIB%20rusian.htm

I would think this Hurricane was returning from combat, not going to combat. In winter, chances would be very high that the guns freeze if the sticker is not applied. Also the sticker looks like being „single used“ rather than many times.

[Pail]

but some of them show the tape.

 

That one is apparently "Hurricane O1 Z5252 which was presented to Major-General A A Kuznetzov, Soviet commanding officer in the region" sounds like he may have had access to the tape cupboard.

 

http://lend-lease.airforce.ru/english/articles/sheppard/hurricanes/index.htm

 

There are more British Stalinists in there for BSR to muse over.... They even seem to have flown with British markings in Russia (?)

 

 

They seemed to change the armament fairly quickly so maybe they did have problems with it as well as complaints. http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=7289

Edited February 18, 2018 by Pail

[Pail]

"On the 23rd October another party was organized, this time by the Wing as a farewell to their Russian hosts. The Wing stores consisted of whiskey, gin and port (beer was too bulky). Fifty guests were there, included two Heroes of the Soviet Union (Gubanov and Safonov?). This time the Russians suffered at the hands of the Wing and whereas they might be used to vodka, they could not cope with the whiskey. One officer even had a stripe removed having been seen by a Commissar, even though so many were 'under the weather'!"

 

LOL

wikipedia has a picture with intact tape but it is the RAF in Russia

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._151_Wing_RAF

 

And one with recently broken tape

 

 

https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Hurricane/USSR/pages/Hurricane-MkII-USSR-Northern-Fleet-27-landing-mishap-Belomorsk-Sumskoy-Posad-1942-01.html

 

Edited February 18, 2018 by Pail

[Finkeren]

The mystery has been solved!

 

I have uncovered a source on this is my Sekrit Dokuments that sheds light on this:

 

Apparently the VVS never received any red tape from the UK and tried to substitute tape of domestic produce instead. However, this superior socialist produced tape was made with 23% stalinium, which nearly led to disaster on the first missions, when the pitiful capitalist .30cal bullets failed to penetrate the Soviet tape and instead destroyed the gun barrels.

 

After these incidents, the VVS just stopped using the tape.

[Ribbon]

Maybe they just stuck cigarette butt into gun barrel

[Pail]

Maybe they just stuck cigarette butt into gun barrel

 

 

Are you crazy ? The poor ground crews wouldn't be wasting perfectly good cigarette butts !!

 

http://17thdivision.tripod.com/id40.html

 

"At the beginning of the 1930s, tobacco production was adjusted and the first cigarettes appeared. In 1937, Belomor cigarettes were produced, named in honor of the White Sea – Baltic Canal, originally named after Stalin and built mostly by prisoners. Once again the flourishing of the tobacco industry coincided with a smoker being in power.

At the start of the Second World War, tobacco supplies decreased as demand grew, and low quality cigarettes with very strong tobacco began to appear. People called such cigarettes “Eye Gouges,” or “Death to the Fascists”."

 

https://www.rbth.com/society/2014/06/07/nicotine_nation_the_story_of_russias_addiction_to_the_cigarette_37287.html

 

I can't get the picture from here of Lend Lease tobacco delivery. http://www.calstatela.edu/sites/default/files/groups/Perspectives/Vol37/37_blondia.pdf

 

Here's another picture of Soviet general A. A. Kuznetsov climbs from a British Hurricane cloaked in Soviet colors. (National Archives) ....to raid the tape cupboard once again...

 

Edited February 19, 2018 by Pail