The Battle of Britain Campaign Diaries have an Air Intelligence entry for 14 July 1940 that states:
British pilots again reporting Bf109s fitted with cannon firing aft
When @BofB1940 tweeted this it was the subject of great interest. Bf109s never had any kind of rear firing ordnance so why were there ongoing reports from British pilots that there were?
It seems completely fanciful that a British pilot would mis-identify a Bf109 with another Luftwaffe type that did fire backwards because all those two engines...except one.
The only single engined Luftwaffe aircraft that could fire backwards was the Ju87 Stuka but that was so distinctive with its fixed undercarriage and gull wings that it surely could not have been mixed up with a Bf109.
So mis-identification seems easy to rule out.
Another possibility might be that an unseen aircraft were firing at the British pilots who had attributed it to an aft firing Bf109 that they were chasing.
The best clue for the most plausible explanation came from a passage, pointed out to us from one of our followers, from Adolf Galland's The First And The Last.
Adolf Galland explained how he had got into a bit of a fix later in the war in his Fw190. In the passage he describes how he'd got himself into a weak position with no good options with enemy fighters on his tail. He describes how he used a technique that had already saved his life twice during the Battle of Britain, which was:
to fire everything he had into the clear blue sky ahead and it fooled the enemy fighters into thinking he was firing back at them and they broke off the engagement.
Adolf Galland was a very influential German fighter pilot during the Battle of Britain and it seems likely that if this technique had saved his life a couple of times, he might have recommended it to his pilots under his command.
I guess if you think you are chasing an enemy aircraft, he is completely defenceless and you have him in your sights, both of you know that this can only end one way...when...there is belching smoke from his guns. It's probably human nature to fear the worst and assume that he's firing back at you, after all...why on earth would he fire forwards.
In the highly charged atmosphere of mortal aerial combat and in the knowledge that you are fighting an ingenious enemy who is always making violent improvements to his aircraft...I guess the natural reaction would be to play safe and bunk out.
After all, a "dumb" (fixed position) machine gun was actually fitted into the tail of some He111s (just behind the rudder) and the Luftwaffe even experimented with fitting aft-firing flame-throwers to some of their aircraft. The flame-thrower idea was short-lived though once they realised the sight of the easily seen flame attracted more British fighters than it scared off.
After all, a "dumb" (fixed position) machine gun was actually fitted into the tail of some He111s (just behind the rudder) and the Luftwaffe even experimented with fitting aft-firing flame-throwers to some of their aircraft. The flame-thrower idea was short-lived though once they realised the sight of the easily seen flame attracted more British fighters than it scared off.
Thank you to all those who took part in the debate on Twitter.
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by Steve Dunster
