Talk:Automatic Gun-Laying Turret

Guns

Did this have a specific type of gun that it used (like a modern CIWS), or was it just an aiming system which could work with any set of guns. If it did have a specific gun, what was it? 82.11.251.232 (talk) 00:21, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

The Village Inn system was an aiming system and AFAIK could have been used with any gun or suitably modified turret.

The system was not more widely used because the following generation of bombers (the Canberra and V Bombers) carried no defensive armament at all, relying on speed, altitude and ECM for defence. Ian Dunster (talk) 12:06, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

Did it work?

So, how successful was the device? --BjKa (talk) 13:00, 8 December 2016 (UTC)

AIUI, it was very effective - but had limited effect, for other reasons.

First of all, it arrived late (September 1944) and simply had little time to have an effect. Also it was scarce in service, so the aircraft equipped with it were used as rearguards. Additionally the German tactics had already moved (from mid 1943) from rear attacks (as British bombers were well armed from that direction) to Schräge Musik attacks from beneath.

Was it effective at stopping rearward attacks? All the written aircrew records of the time suggest it was very much so, even from multiple attackers.

Another issue, probably a factor in its limited application, was the Flensburg (FuG 227) radar detector, which German nightfighters had been using to home in on the Monica tail warning radar. This first became known in July 1944 and prompted orders for the rapid withdrawal of Monica. It's known though that some aircraft kept their Monica sets for some time, including those with Village Inn in the rearguard role. Andy Dingley (talk) 18:06, 8 December 2016 (UTC)