Quote:
Originally Posted by M0FYA Andy
The A.P. for Mk4 makes no mention of demolition charges, wartime experience showed that they were more trouble than they were worth in IFF, Gee and H2S units - to be big enough to successfully destroy the equipment would be big enough to bring the aircraft down, and inadvertent operation occurred far too frequently, so they were deleted before the end of the war.
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This is something I'd wondered about myself- even before the advent of the copper magnetron resonator block, it must have been difficult to ensure that an item of equipment would be sufficiently disrupted to prevent determined, knowledgable and insightful enemy personell from piecing together its principles, function and even details without making it a serious munitions hazard in itself. Also, getting out of many aircraft was difficult on a good day, never mind if it was seriously out of control with high-g tumbling and/or being ablaze. It's quite common to read of aircrew who were otherwise brave, skilled and responsible having little recollection of how they had actually escaped from a stricken aircraft, so it's easy to imagine that arming demolition charges would often get overlooked in the general melee and traumatic excitement of survival.