Luftwaffe night-fighter ace Helmut Vinke made the fatal mistake of flying in daylight on 26 February 1944. His Messerschmitt Bf 110G was caught at 1,000ft near Dunkirk by two Typhoons of No 198 Squadron and blasted out of the sky. This gun sequence, taken from Flying Officer George Hardy’s aircraft, shows the Messerschmitt’s starboard engine exploding, shortly before it dived to its destruction in the English Channel.
Royal Air Force 1939-1945: Coastal Command Photograph taken by the rear-facing camera of a No 77 Squadron Whitley during its attack on U-705 in the Bay of Biscay, 3 September 1942.
The Hawker Typhoon’s devastating rocket armament was effective against tanks, gun emplacements, buildings and railways. Coastal shipping was another target, including this unfortunate tug caught in the Scheldt estuary in September 1944. In this case the shell splashes from the aircraft’s four 20mm cannon assist the pilot in correcting his aim before unleashing a salvo of RPs.
“The end of a Foke –WULF 190, 10/14/1943. It’s minutes were numbered when this German Foke-Wulf 190 got inside the sights of a gunner aboard a Royal Air Force Fighter Command squadron’s Typhoon. This series of photos shows the split-second disintegration of the enemy plane as it blew up under a stream of fire from the Typhoon. In Photo #1 the gunner scores his first hit, on the plane tail. In subsequent photos, parts of the enemy fighter begin to fall, until, in one photo the Fouke-Wulf190 blows up completely.”
Still from camera-gun film, showing cannon fire from 25 yards range striking the port engine and wing root of a Junkers Ju 88, intercepted over the Bay of Biscay by Flight Lieutenant J Singleton (pilot) and J W Haslam (radar operator), in a De Havilland Mosquito NF Mark II of No. 25 Squadron RAF based at Church Fenton, Yorkshire.
Still from film footage shot from a Hawker Typhoon of No. 181 Squadron RAF, showing a rocket projectile fired from the aircraft, heading towards German motor transport trying to escape through the Argentan-Falaise gap on a road near Livarot, Normandy.
2ND TACTICAL AIR FORCE, 1943-1945. Still from film shot by a Hawker Typhoon of No. 181 Squadron RAF while attacking trucks in railways sidings at Nordhorn, Germany, showing a salvo of 60-lb rocket projectiles heading for the target, which has already been hit.
A still from camera-gun film taken from a Supermarine Spitfire Mark I of No. 609 Squadron RAF, flown by by Pilot Officer J D Bisdee, as he dives on a formation of Heinkel He IIIs of KG 55 which had just bombed the Supermarine aircraft works at Woolston, Southampton. No. 609 Squadron were based at Middle Wallop, Hampshire.
A still from camera gun film shows tracer ammunition from a Supermarine Spitfire Mark I of No. 609 Squadron RAF, flown by Flight Lieutenant J H G McArthur, hitting a Heinkel He 111 on its starboard quarter. These aircraft were part of a large formation from KG 53 and KG 55 which attacked the Bristol Aeroplane Company’s works at Filton, Bristol, just before midday on 25 September 1940. No. 609 Squadron were based at Middle Wallop, Hampshire.
Stills from gun camera footage of an attack on an Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi G4M2e Model 24 Tei (“Betty”) bomber carrying a Kugisho/Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka (“Baka”) Model 11 manned rocket-propelled suicide plane.
Royal Air Force 1939-1945: Coastal Command Photograph taken by the rear-facing camera of a No 77 Squadron Whitley during its attack on U-705 in the Bay of Biscay, 3 September 1942.
Still from camera gun footage shot from a North American Mustang Mark III flown by Flying Officer J. Butler of No. 65 Squadron RAF, as he shot down a Focke-Wulf Fw 190D of II/JG 26 which was attempting to attack an Avro Lancaster (banking, left), during a daylight raid by the RAF Bomber Command on the Gremberg railway yards at Cologne, Germany.
Still from camera gun footage shot from the North American Mustang of Squadron Leader J.A.F. MacLachlan, Commanding Officer of No. 132 Squadron RAF, when, during a sortie south of Paris with Flight Lieutenant A.G. Page, they shot down four training aircraft and two Junkers Ju 88s in ten minutes. This shows one of two Henschel Hs 126s claimed by MacLachlan falling in flames. 132 Squadron was equipped with the Supermarine Spitfire VB, but the pilots had borrowed the Mustangs for this “Ranger” sortie.
Still from camera-gun footage shot from a RAF Hawker Typhoon Mark IB flown by Flying Officer W.V. Mollett of No. 266 Squadron RAF, showing the shooting down of a Junkers Ju 52/3mg6e minesweeping aircraft of the Minensuchgruppe off Lorient, France. Cannon shells from Mollett’s aircraft are striking the sea and the fuselage of the Ju 52, which crashed into the sea shortly afterwards. Mollet shared the destruction of the Ju 52 with Flying Officer N.J. Lucas, also of 266 Squadron.
Photo of Luftwaffe Me-163 being shot down by USAAF P-47 of the 8th Air Force, as seen from the P-47’s gun camera.
A still from camera gun footage taken from a Supermarine Spitfire Mark I of No. 609 Squadron RAF flown by Pilot Officer R.F.G. Miller, showing a Heinkel He 111 of KG 53 or KG 55 taking hits in the port engine from Miller’s machine guns. The aircraft was one of a force which bombed the Bristol Aeroplane Company’s factory at Filton, Bristol. Miller was killed two days later when he collided head on with a Messerschmitt Me 110 of III/ZG 26 over Cheselbourne, Dorset.