20 mm Becker Automatic cannon on an Alb. D.II?

[Hauksbee 103]

Just saw an ROF posting of an Albatros D.II with a 20mm Becker cannon mounted on the top wing. That's a new one for me. He was ruining the day for three Handley-Page bombers. Anyone know about this? And why didn't it become more common? On second look, there's about four vids.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NualC5bLeNM

[Hauksbee 103]

Here's probably more than you ever wanted to know about the Becker 20 mm:

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When the leaders of the German Air Force, during the latter days of the first World War, ordered the placing of armor around the vital parts of their huge Gotha bombing planes, they realized that they had notonly made, the rifle-caliber machine guns of the Allies obsolete but their own as well. In order to findsome suitable weapon that would deal adequately with the situation and still not violate the St. Petersburg Treaty relating to small-bore explosive projectiles, they turned to the invention of Reinhold Becker, of Krefeld, Germany, who was then producing an aircraft cannon at his own firm, the Becker Stahlwerke at Willich am Rhein. His patent had been applied for in 1914.

 

The Becker also served as the pattern for the famous Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, which sees service to this day. (Incidently, I find that Oerlikon is a town in Switzerland.)

 

History, Design & development

 

Development commenced in 1913 and was therefore already advanced when the War Ministry issued a specification in June 1915 calling for an aircraft cannon of under 37 mm caliber and 70 kg weight capable of firing a 10-round burst. Tests commenced shortly thereafter with the weapon mounted in a Gotha G.I, but proved unsatisfactory. Despite this, the potential of the gun was such that the arsenal at Spandau was engaged to help develop and fine-tune the design, leading to a production contract for 120 Becker Type M2 guns in June 1916. In addition to the orders for aircraft guns placed with Becker, Spandau and MAN also received a contract to build Becker cannon for the Army. The Spandau works developed the gun further producing it as the Spandau Type 3 20mm cannon, which was heavier and had a slower rate of fire at 250 rpm.

 

Operational use

 

The main types to utilise the Type M2 were large aircraft - the Friedrichshafen G.III bomber and AEG G.IVk ground-attack machine. Tests in smaller, single-engined aircraft were not so successful, but were carried out extensively through the rest of the war, commencing with an Albatros J.I in December 1917. Due to the gun's operating principles, it could not be synchronised, and this posed an immediate problem forits installation in this type of plane. The solution adopted after the tests with the Albatros J.I was to mount the gun at an angle to fire downwards. Fitting the gun to a fighter with a pusher configuration was another obvious solution, and trials were carried out with an Albatros D.VI. Other intended installations were for an AGO S.I and the Hansa (Caspar) D.I, but these were not carried out before the Armistice.

 

Total production figures are not known, but were in excess of 539 (111 by Becker and 428 by MAN); a total of 362 were surrendered to the Allies.

 

There are only two surviving Becker cannons, one in France from a shot-down AEG G1 and one in Washington USA.

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Edited December 8, 2013 by Hauksbee

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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I can see why this did not come into any kind of standard use, at least not in the small scout planes.  If you think it's cumbersome to load a top wing Lewis in the heat of battle imagine trying to reload that big arse cannon, then further imagine the recoil stresses on that top wing itself.    I bet you would also need to sight in your shot by first using your MGs just as the French did with the engine-mounted 37mm Puteaux cannon in the SPAD VII, (which only proved itself to be moderately useful to two pilots during the entire war).  And there is no way in RL you could have pulled off those long, arcing shots with the kind of accuracy being shown in those videos.  The plane-mounted cannons were meant for ground target attacks, not air-to-air combat.  But hey, to each their own. 

 

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[Olham 164]

"I vill stick vizz der twin LMG 08/15 'Spandau', mein Herr!"

 

But thanks for the info, Hauksbee - I had never heard of it.

Edited December 8, 2013 by Olham

[Hauksbee 103]

Hard to say about re-loading difficulties. The Lewis magazine (if I have it right) you had to seat and twist to lock. The Becker appears to be a straight forward "Tab A in Slot B" affair, but real life can be tricky. As far as ROF has it, it seems to be a choice between cannon or MG's; probably a weight consideration. The Becker weighed 66 lbs, (30 kg). The Spandau 08 weighed 59.4 lbs. ('call it 60), but the 08/15 seems to have been pared down to 39.6 (let's say 40 lbs) or 18 kg. This is the gun body alone; no cooling jacket or water. So perhaps a single-seater like the Alb.II could loft an MG for ranging shots. (what do you think, Olham?)

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The guy who posted the vids. on YouTube, Soknik01, had this to say about using the Becker (in two separate replies):

 

It certainly won't last long if you allow the AI to gun for you. I only use it if I am gunning for myself or have a human gunner, in which case there are enough rounds to take out over a half dozen planes if you have a %30 hit accuracy. You would have to use different tactics than I did here in order to achieve anywhere near that level of accuracy tho- The only time I can consistently hit my target is when he's only a few plane lengths away from me. This means that I get shot up too- lol.

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I'm far from an expert gunner by any measure. This video was taken over a 25 minute period with unlimited ammo. My intent was to show that an accomplished gunner could really turn the tides of a battle if there were targets available. Also wanted to emphasize that the cannon is effective from extreme range leaving you safe from retaliation. Ty for the kind comment

 

'Seems that a lot of practice is needed before you can simply stand off and lob single shots as we saw in the videos.