Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 24, 2021 9:32:49 GMT 12
GUNNERY IN R.N.Z.A.F.
EFFECT OF SCIENTIFIC TRAINING
HIGH SCORES RECORDED
(R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service.)
Advanced scientific methods of instruction have had astounding results on the scores obtained by gunners in the R.N.Z.A.F. Fighter pilots now obtain eight hits where they scored only one previously, and the hits scored by turret gunners have improved in the ratio of 50 to one.
Gunnery in the R.N.Z.A.F. has become an exact mathematical science. In fact, it can be stated that the air gunners and the fighter pilots in the service are probably better trained in the science of gunnery than the airmen in any other air force in the world. When it is remembered that the whole complicated and expensive mechanism in a modern fighter aircraft is for the purpose of mounting guns and cannons to shoot the enemy, marksmanship is extremely important.
The task of the turret gunner, on the other hand, is to protect his aircraft from attack. Whether or not his crew and aircraft arrive home safely will not infrequently depend upon his knowledge of gunnery.
Gunners Carefully Selected
Gunners for the R.N.ZA.F. are carefully selected. They have to be men who remain calm and cool in the face of danger. A gunner has to hold his fire until the right moment. That applies to fighter pilots as well as turret gunners. And it is interesting to note in passing that many awards for gallantry have been won by New Zealand airmen because they withheld their fire until the right moment. Mention of that fact has been made in citations to awards.
There are various other reasons for the success of New Zealand air gunners. A pre-operational school of gunnery was started at the R.N.Z.A.F. station, Delta, and it was put in charge of a specially qualified education officer. As gunnery is so closely related to mathematics and physics, it has been found that men qualified in those sciences can be valuable instructors.
Synthetic equipment plays an important part at the pre-operational schools of instruction. Synthetic instruction does not obviate operational instruction, but it does allow theory to be thoroughly understood, without any waste of time in the air. The RN.Z.A.F., in its gunnery schools, has utilised a great variety of synthetic devices with undoubted success.
The air gunner has his training, advanced to a higher stage at the R.N.Z.A.F. station, Ohakea, He receives more training with synthetic devices. Again at Ohakea. the chief ground instructor is an education officer , with outstanding qualifications in mathematics and science. Gunnery errors are reduced, to facts and figures. Factual reasons are produced to show why shots do not hit their target.
An Amazing Figure
Target figures in practical air firing done by turret gunners have improved by 5000 per cent.—an amazing figure. That is the result of the methods of instruction put into effect at Delta and Ohakea.
Fighter pilots receive their gunnery instruction at a school which is now at Ardmore, and their shooting —which is known, as fixed gunnery— has improved by 800 per pent. The school at Ardmore was recently attended by eight fighter pilots back from the Pacific, and four of them wear decorations gained in this war. They readily admitted that the ground instruction given by an education officer qualified in mathematics had greatly improved their gunnery. As well as training fighter pilots to act as specialist gunnery leaders on overseas service, the school at Ardmore is training specialised gunnery instructors for flying training schools.
The statement that New Zealand air gunners are as good as the world is based on the known training figures of all the Allied nations. Summarising the reasons for that success, it can be attributed to the careful selection of personnel, the use of qualified mathematicians as ground instructors, together with flying instructors who have had extensive operational experience, the adoption of the best synthetic training devices followed by practical experience and the use of a gunnery theory which incorporates the best features from the Allied air forces. In a nutshell, the aim of the R.N.ZA.F. experts has been to reduce gunnery to rule of thumb methods with properly implanted mathematical and sound theoretical background.
There are better examples of the initiative possessed by experts in the R.N.Z.A.F. than that shown by the improvement in gunnery figures. In fact, a number of the features in the. gunnery courses evolved for this country are now being adopted by the Royal Australian Air Force. An example is the appointment of education officers as specialist gunnery instructors. Scientific instruction has definitely made the chances of an enemy at the, receiving end of a machine-gun firing 1150 rounds a minute very slender indeed.
PRESS, 4 DECEMBER 1944
EFFECT OF SCIENTIFIC TRAINING
HIGH SCORES RECORDED
(R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service.)
Advanced scientific methods of instruction have had astounding results on the scores obtained by gunners in the R.N.Z.A.F. Fighter pilots now obtain eight hits where they scored only one previously, and the hits scored by turret gunners have improved in the ratio of 50 to one.
Gunnery in the R.N.Z.A.F. has become an exact mathematical science. In fact, it can be stated that the air gunners and the fighter pilots in the service are probably better trained in the science of gunnery than the airmen in any other air force in the world. When it is remembered that the whole complicated and expensive mechanism in a modern fighter aircraft is for the purpose of mounting guns and cannons to shoot the enemy, marksmanship is extremely important.
The task of the turret gunner, on the other hand, is to protect his aircraft from attack. Whether or not his crew and aircraft arrive home safely will not infrequently depend upon his knowledge of gunnery.
Gunners Carefully Selected
Gunners for the R.N.ZA.F. are carefully selected. They have to be men who remain calm and cool in the face of danger. A gunner has to hold his fire until the right moment. That applies to fighter pilots as well as turret gunners. And it is interesting to note in passing that many awards for gallantry have been won by New Zealand airmen because they withheld their fire until the right moment. Mention of that fact has been made in citations to awards.
There are various other reasons for the success of New Zealand air gunners. A pre-operational school of gunnery was started at the R.N.Z.A.F. station, Delta, and it was put in charge of a specially qualified education officer. As gunnery is so closely related to mathematics and physics, it has been found that men qualified in those sciences can be valuable instructors.
Synthetic equipment plays an important part at the pre-operational schools of instruction. Synthetic instruction does not obviate operational instruction, but it does allow theory to be thoroughly understood, without any waste of time in the air. The RN.Z.A.F., in its gunnery schools, has utilised a great variety of synthetic devices with undoubted success.
The air gunner has his training, advanced to a higher stage at the R.N.Z.A.F. station, Ohakea, He receives more training with synthetic devices. Again at Ohakea. the chief ground instructor is an education officer , with outstanding qualifications in mathematics and science. Gunnery errors are reduced, to facts and figures. Factual reasons are produced to show why shots do not hit their target.
An Amazing Figure
Target figures in practical air firing done by turret gunners have improved by 5000 per cent.—an amazing figure. That is the result of the methods of instruction put into effect at Delta and Ohakea.
Fighter pilots receive their gunnery instruction at a school which is now at Ardmore, and their shooting —which is known, as fixed gunnery— has improved by 800 per pent. The school at Ardmore was recently attended by eight fighter pilots back from the Pacific, and four of them wear decorations gained in this war. They readily admitted that the ground instruction given by an education officer qualified in mathematics had greatly improved their gunnery. As well as training fighter pilots to act as specialist gunnery leaders on overseas service, the school at Ardmore is training specialised gunnery instructors for flying training schools.
The statement that New Zealand air gunners are as good as the world is based on the known training figures of all the Allied nations. Summarising the reasons for that success, it can be attributed to the careful selection of personnel, the use of qualified mathematicians as ground instructors, together with flying instructors who have had extensive operational experience, the adoption of the best synthetic training devices followed by practical experience and the use of a gunnery theory which incorporates the best features from the Allied air forces. In a nutshell, the aim of the R.N.ZA.F. experts has been to reduce gunnery to rule of thumb methods with properly implanted mathematical and sound theoretical background.
There are better examples of the initiative possessed by experts in the R.N.Z.A.F. than that shown by the improvement in gunnery figures. In fact, a number of the features in the. gunnery courses evolved for this country are now being adopted by the Royal Australian Air Force. An example is the appointment of education officers as specialist gunnery instructors. Scientific instruction has definitely made the chances of an enemy at the, receiving end of a machine-gun firing 1150 rounds a minute very slender indeed.
PRESS, 4 DECEMBER 1944
