Loaded guns?

[Russell]

I was leafing through the WNW Fokker D.VII instruction booklet (not that there's much likelihood of me getting around to build one at the moment ) - there was a photo showing the guns with the loaded ammunition belts in place.

It got me wondering what the German protocol was for loading ammunition - in the sense of between missions would the aircraft normally be without ammunition (only loaded immediately prior to a mission) or were they typically stood at dispersal in loaded condition?

Regards
Russell

[uncletony]

I don't know for certain the protocol, however I can offer a few reasons why I am pretty sure aircraft were not left overnight loaded:

-- Fabric ammunition belts were susceptible to humidity, distorted belts led to jams, airmen did not like jammed guns. At all.
-- Fuel and coolant (and I believe oil) were completely drained from the aircraft every night. It stands to reason that the extra work of unloading the guns would not be unreasonable to expect.
-- Pilots were known to personally inspect their ammunition round by round before it was loaded into the aircraft. Again, this speaks to how seriously the ammunition was handled.

EDIT:
I misread your question slightly. My hunch is that the aircraft were prepared for combat on a daily basis when there was a chance of flying, which would mean filling all fluids and loading the ammunition. At that point I assume the aircraft would be left in a readiness state until a mission was flown or the staffel stood down at night.

[Russell]

Bo,
Both parts of your reply covered it nicely as it happens.

I'd been wondering if it was more representative to model the ammunition feed troughs with or without belts - it guess in reality it's just down to how we perceive our model at that moment in it's (modelled) existence.

Regards
Russell