A colourised photograph of Boulton-Paul Defiants of 264 Squadron, 1940. Designed to attack unescorted bomber streams by flying through them and using the four .303 Browning machine guns in the turret to shoot them down, the Defiant had a career of mixed results. When it was first seen over Dunkirk many German pilots thought that the Defiants were Hurricanes and thus they attacked from behind, only to be shot down as they didn’t see the turret until too late. But after this had been found out the Germans attacked from head-on, where the turret could easily get, and thus the Defiants were slaughtered. By mid-August the Defiant squadrons were pulled from daytime combat and were then used as night-fighters, where they fared better until they were replaced by aircraft better equipped for the role such as the Beaufighter. They were also used as target tugs and air-sea rescue aircraft throughout the war.