French plane with 3,7 cm gun in 1916 ???

[Regulus]

Hi,

On the 17th of may 1916 the German destroyer V67 seems to have been attacked by a French airplane, nothing special if the German sailors weren't telling that they had been attacked by a 3,7 cm calibre, that did hit them twice.

No I find it a very special story. Can it be ? Was it done ?

VBR from Regulus

[Cigogne]

The Voisin types 4, 5, 7, and 8 were sometimes fitted with a 37mm Hotchkiss cannon that was fired from the front cockpit. Numerous photos of the types thus fitted are in Jim Davilla's book on French Aircraft of the First World War from Flying Machines Press.

Greetings!
I seem to remember there was a varient of the SPAD XIII that carried a 30mm sized cannon in the nose. I don't think it was very successful, but a number of them were in service. Given the calibers in service, that might have been a 37mm.

Enjoy

Joe McCarthy

Greetings!
Of course, that was not 1916, so that is a little off topic. But the SPAD XIII varient did indeed exist.

Enjoy

Joe McCarthy

[Regulus]

Thanks Cigogne and Joe ! Again something interesting to mention in my updated version of my book on the Marinekorps Flandern. 8)

VBR from Regulus !

[gregoire]

A few point to all
there were two versions (I am talking about plane that have seen sservice not those that were only protoype) of the spad armed with a 37 mm cannon firing trought the motor.
one was a land spad XII that was a based on the spad VII the other was a seaplane version of the previous the Spad XIV the spad XII was put in service in spring/summer 17 and the spad XIV with the navy in mid 18 so that can not be the plane in the incident.

The french navy also got some 37mm bomber and flying boat
the bomber were vosin VII that were put inservice in the navy only in mid 17
the flying boat were some prototype FBA. in april 16 the navy decided to arm a FBA 150hp with a 37mm cannon to attack submarine a prototype was devloped and first flew in june 16 at Bizerte (north africa) then in autumn in the lande region (close to gascony) the navy decided that the 37mm was too weak and chose to equip its seaplane bomber with 47mm cannon (the first plane being delivered during autumn 17)

so if the attacking plane french that live us with 2 possibility.
it could have been a cannon armed breguet michelin BLC or a breguet 5 thos plane (very similar) were in service in may 16 with the following unit BM 117 BM 118, BM 119, BM 120 and BM 121 all those unit were forming the GBM5 bomber wing. the GBM 5 was fighting quite a lot in 16 first at verdun then on the some (it moved to the some in preparation of the offensive in april/may 16) that made the use of any of those unit for naval attack highly unlikley (and I do not see a german destroyer on the some)
the other 1916 cannon armed plane were the voisin 4 and the voisin 8, the voisin 8 only started production in summer 16 (first produced in august) so the last remaning plane was a voisin 4
the following unig were equiped with voisin 4
V83 (no information)
VC 110 was part of the GB 1 that was involved in the same activity as the GBM5
VC 111 and VC113 were part of the GB3 that was assigned to the some front in may 16
and finaly a potential winer VC 116 (I have also found referenc to it as V116 and it is highly possible that it was equiped with other model of voisin in addition to the cannon armed voisin 4 this unit was assigned to the 36 CA (corp d'armee) that was fighting with the belgium army in the coast. The V116 base was St-Pol (close to Dunkirk) so that make the V116 a highly potential unit for your attack (if it took place in this area
here are 2 picture of a voisin 4/5 cannon armed (form Ro$bud image archive)

[Droops]

Did not the RNAS have a handful of the Voison or Breguet types? I'll have to check my sources at home tonight, but I believe that the RNAS had at least one cannon-fitted plane of these types.

VBR,

John

[gregoire]

I do not remember the RNAS (or the RFC in fact) using breguet 4 and 5, a few RFC squadron have flown the Voisin LA (not canon armed) but the last one the 12 squadron have switched them for other type in nov 15
for the RNAS I have not found trace of the use of Voisin in france
the 3 squadron was using voisin a Galipoli but I think it was seaplane voisin

the 7 squadron was flying voisin in east africa in 1916 before being disbanded but I think it was not cannon armed plane

I am not sure if the RNAS was flying other voisin at this time (will check tonight)

[Matt_Bittner]

Looks like the British did fly the Breguet V. *Check this out:
http://www.overthefront.com/SiteMill.html/...l/No3Wing3.html

For the entire article, start here:
http://www.overthefront.com/SiteMill.html/...l/No3Wing1.html

[gregoire]

Oops that will teach me of posting before checking you are right some breguet V were used by the RNAS