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Description
The Boulton Paul Defiant was introduced to the British Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1939 as an interceptor with a top-mounted turret rather than fixed front-mounted weapons, which theoretically gave it a wider field of fire and left it less susceptible to attacks from behind. During the 1940 Battle of Britain, German pilots initially confused it with the Hawker Hurricane and were surprised when this fighter started firing from the rear, but eventually identified the Defiant as a different aircraft and began attacking it from the front. Consequently, the RAF replaced the Defiant as a front-line daytime interceptor with other fighters such as the Supermarine Spitfire, and re-classified the Defiant as an anti-bomber night fighter. Its most common tactic was to fly below German bombers and fire upward with its four machine guns. The last complete Defiant is on display at the Royal Air Force Museum in London at the former RAF Hendon Base, and is painted black as a night fighter of the Polish 307th Night Fighter Squadron, which took the nickname "Lwówskich Puchaczy" (Lvov Eagle-Owls) after the Ukrainian city they defended in the Polish-Soviet War and the nocturnal predator.

Description
The Boulton Paul Defiant was introduced to the British Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1939 as an interceptor with a top-mounted turret rather than fixed front-mounted weapons, which theoretically gave it a wider field of fire and left it less susceptible to attacks from behind. During the 1940 Battle of Britain, German pilots initially confused it with the Hawker Hurricane and were surprised when this fighter started firing from the rear, but eventually identified the Defiant as a different aircraft and began attacking it from the front. Consequently, the RAF replaced the Defiant as a front-line daytime interceptor with other fighters such as the Supermarine Spitfire, and re-classified the Defiant as an anti-bomber night fighter. Its most common tactic was to fly below German bombers and fire upward with its four machine guns. The last complete Defiant is on display at the Royal Air Force Museum in London at the former RAF Hendon Base, and is painted black as a night fighter of the Polish 307th Night Fighter Squadron, which took the nickname "Lwówskich Puchaczy" (Lvov Eagle-Owls) after the Ukrainian city they defended in the Polish-Soviet War and the nocturnal predator.