The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

the Hurricanes and Spitfires was fuel tanks that had not been treated with
any kind of flameproof sealant. This was partially remedied, as those in the
wings were treated with a sealant called Linatax, but the reserve tank in the
fuselage was left uncovered. The best that could be done for the large fuel
tank sitting the other side of the instrument panel was to put up a metal
bulkhead in between. This very probably saved Cocky Dundas’s life, but
even with Linatax the wing tanks in the Hurricane were especially
susceptible to flame, which, thanks to the draught caused by the gun holes,
soon spread along the hollow wings and engulfed the cockpit. The problem
was that once the cockpit was on fire, the pilot had seconds to get out,
because opening the hood once the fire took hold only fanned the flames
further. Many of those who did get out suffered horrific burns.
Hurricanes had their merits. They were a stable gun platform and
certainly bullet holes through the fuselage were easy and quick to repair.
They were also faster than all the German bombers and infinitely more
manoeuvrable. Pete Brothers did everything he could to improve the
performance of his Hurricane. He took the mirror off the top and bought a
curved car mirror and had it fixed inside the windscreen, and when he was
waiting to be scrambled, he and his rigger would often sit on the wing with
a bit of sandpaper, filing down the pock rivets to help reduce the drag. ‘I
reckon we got an extra seven miles per hour out of it,’ he says. ‘No-one else
bothered but I thought it was worth doing and it gave me something to do
on the ground.’
The Germans also had Me 110 Zerstörers, which had greater firepower
than any of the single-engine fighters and were faster than Hurricanes,
which made them a dangerous opponent. Plenty of Spitfires and Hurricanes,
especially, were shot down by Me 110s, although this did not hide their
fundamental weakness as a fighter – their lack of manoeuvrability. The
Zerstörer was another pet project of Göring which, like the Stuka, was
horribly shown up once they were confronted with half-decent singleengine
fighters. Unlike the Stukas, the Zerstörers would continue to play a
part in the battle, albeit a reduced one, but the losses of Me 110s were
horrendous. Twenty-one were destroyed on 15 August, and a further
thirteen three days later. Since Göring had puffed up the status of the
Zerstörer units, its pilots were often both highly skilled and experienced.
The loss of men like Walter Rubensdörffer, for example, could not be
readily made up for. The tactical short-sightedness with which Göring and