Why are enemy airplanes in British museums unarmed?

[Romani]

I can't believe I didn't notice this before, but on reviewing my pictures of the IWM , Hendon and Duxford I've found a disturbing oddity.

All German (and the single Japanese) airplanes of WWII are unarmed. The guns have been removed or covered over. A particularly nasty example is the FW190 at the IWM who has the panel covering of the nose machineguns bolted on backwards apparently.

Why? Why is this done? British or american airplanes conserve the guns, or at least the barrel portion that sticks out.

I thought that it was simply that when the aircraft was captured, guns were removed for examination and safety reasons, and then they were lost and nobody ever bothered to restore the museum exhibits, even if it wouldn't be too much trouble to stick a bit of pipe in the holes. I thought it was sloppiness, but my uncle said there must be some psychological reason to it, as considerable effort has been taken to cover the gun openings.

Why? Remove the guns so the enemy airplanes are less threatening? To make the enemy machines less appealing lest visiting schoolchildren end up thinking that Nazi stuff is cool?

One possible explanation is that the guns are removed out of spite, as a final humilliation to the vanquished enemy, having its war machines exhibited as trophies. That seems quite in character with the British, and if they feel that way, I am not going to contest that.

But I still think it's wrong. I think military museums now are well past the stage of being only storehouses for war trophies. And as years passed, the captured enemy equipment have become valuable historical artifacts. So in the interest of authencity, they should be restored as close as possible as their original condition, guns included. Or at least mockups.

Also, I think that "declawing" the airplanes is wrong. By making them look harmless, I see it as taking away from the efforts and sacrifice Allied soldiers endured facing those enemy war machines and the foes that handled them. I think it doesn't take anything away from the, in example, the Spitfire mystique to show what brilliant pieces of engineering it had to fight against, if anything, it enhances the glory. There's more merit in defeating a well armed enemy.

So, is there any explanation for this? What do you think?

[mike_baram]

Maybe it's political correctness at work. The apologists want us to think that the Germans and Japanese were a nice bunch of artichoke-eating, sandal-wearing aviation enthusiasts, shot down in their prime by the evil warmongering cowboy-mentality westerners.

Maybe it's a neo-con plot.



Just kidding.....I really don't have an explanation, but I figure someone is going to jump on me for this. Actually, your "aircraft was captured, guns were removed for examination and safety reasons, and then they were lost and nobody ever bothered to restore the museum exhibits," theory makes sense to me.

[Romani]

It seems the simplest explanation is the most plausible, guns were removed, and since they are enemy planes, nobody bothers to restore them fully. It must be noted though, that the DVII at Hendon has the Spandaus, and the FW190 trainer at Hendon has the wing root guns.

So no malicious intent, just half assed restoration efforts.

It's just that that FW190 hanging from the ceiling at the IWM, London, mystifies me. It has a bomb rack under the fuselage, so it could be the fighter bomber version wich had only 2 guns in the wing roots, but they are faired over, and that weird cowling they have covering the engine MGs

This is what I mean




I would really like to know about that airframe, maybe they used it for aerodynamics tests and that's the reason. I thought the openings might have been covered to prevent insects getting through the holes and nestling it, but the Spitfire hanging next to it has the Browning holes uncovered.

... or it might be a botched up restoration, and since it's hanged up there is too much of a hassle of getting things right. But that doesn't excuse restoring the exhibits on the floor!

[Barrett]

It might be a Euro Thing. Most of the restored warbirds in the US have real or replica weapons, even if they don't have gunsights.

Nearly all of Champlin's planes had armament: the 190D had everything, including the gun camera. The N.28 had operable synchronizers as well.

[Simba]

The A6M5 'Zeke 52' centre-section that was the centrepiece of the IWM's Pacific War exhibit many moons ago was definitely armed with its original guns. The IWM originally miscaptioned it as a A6M5c despite its cowling guns both being the original small-calibre m-gs, so I put 'em straight and they recaptioned it correctly.

The main reason for the lack of armament is that the guns of captured enemy aircraft were usually removed for separate examination and never put back.

[Romani]

Update: It turns out in every case that it's simply that the guns were removed upon captured and the British never restored them, but the FW190 is indeed a very special case.

I just found out the truth in a website, the reason for the fairings is even weirder than I imagined!

e "show of Bethlehem". Guests were allowed to bring long sticks with whichttp://ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/20...il_fw190a8.htm

If you want to see a real Fw 190A in Europe, London is the best place to visit. London offers the opportunity to view two complete (and original) Fw 190 airframes. Imperial War Museum has a Fw 190A-8/R6, Werknummer 733 682. This aircraft was which "pure" fighter. It's initial operational career is not documented, but what we know is that it was later assigned to IV./KG200 where it flew as a top component of a Mistel S-3B (with Junkers Ju 88H-1). Captured in Germany towards the very end of the war, it was brought to England in November 1945.

So, it was a fighter, used as the driver of the parasite bomber Mistel, and is exhibited as a fighter bomber!

PS Another interesting factoid, the museum was originally a madhouse!

The building was initially the Bethlem Royal Hospital, London's psychiatric hospital where for a penny (Free on Tuesdays!!) people could tour patient's cells and watch the "show of Bethlehem". Guests were allowed to bring long sticks with which to poke and enrage the patients. The word "Bedlam" comes from this.

I knew about Bedlam... but never thought the building existed today and it was the IWM!!!

[Harri Huopainen]

It was actually quite common to remove cowling armament from Focke Wulf's, which operated in the Western front in "Stumrgruppe" duties. They were specialiced anti bomber units and flew mostly with Fw190 which carried additional armour for pilot and 30mm cannons in outer wing positions plus 20mm cannons in wing roots. At first they were modified but later there was special variant built as "Sturmjäger" straight from the factory. If I remember correctly, whole name was Fw-190 A-8/R8. Partly due to increased weight of armour and partly because striking power of 20mm and 30mm guns was tremendous, cowling gun's were usually removed and faired over. I don't know if this particular machine ever served in "Sturmgruppe", or were the guns removed from other purpose.
Under the aircraft there is normal rack, in which a bomb or jettisonable fuel tank could be installed.
By the way, Bf-110 G-4 in Hendon museum seems to have full armament installed. I think that some planes are unarmed in museums, because they were in many cases test flown without armament, and when they were restored for museums after storage in sometimes very unsuitable places, weapons were simply lost in many cases.

Harri Huopainen

[Craig]

Takes all the WAR out of 'em.