Riga Big Guns

Riga Big Guns

Riga's plane was pushed out of the hangar by the ground crew. It had just been serviced and was ready to go. The men pushed the plane onto the concrete. It was solid looking on its tricycle landing gear. A nose wheel and one under each wing.

 

The guns had been stripped down cleaned and oiled. There were many guns. Too many! Four 13 millimetre heavy machine guns. Two above the nose and two in each wing root. There were two 20 millimetre cannons also in the wing root. In the nose was a single 30 millimetre cannon. Two similar weapons were in the wings. One per side. All the guns could be fired together or separately. It was a heavy lethal armament.

 

Riga had used the plane in this configuration in combat. She wanted the machine guns removing. Against bombers they were of limited use. The big guns were fine.

 

The varied bullets and cannon shells were interesting. Some were armour piercing and others high explosive. Mixed in were tracer shells for added lethality and aiming.

 

Bombers were easy to hit with the large guns. Smaller agile fighters were challenging but it could be done. The lighter machine guns were fine for fighters. Yet all were added weight reducing speed climb and agility. It was a balancing act. Be fast enough to intercept the target then destroy it. How much was too much weight?

 

Riga's was a fine looking plane. She looked forward to a test flight and shooting ground targets on the range. Not combat but thrilling enough. It was time to put on her flight suit and parachute…

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