The Defiant was designed as a response to what seemed, in the late 1930s, a very possible scenario - fleets of bombers launching from bases in Germany to attack the UK mainland.

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Such attacks would be made by unescorted bombers, the range from German airbases naturally being too great for fighters to accompany them. Therefore the Defiant would need no conventional forward firing weaponry; her turret would instead be a potent weapon for tearing bombers to pieces.

 

Blitzkrieg blew apart that assumption, as it did many others. When the Defiant was called upon to realise its role as a bomber destroyer - for which it was well designed - it proved dangerously vulnerable to the Bf 109s which were very much in range of the southern UK.

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However, as a night fighter she proved to be a capable machine when paired with emerging Airborne Intercept Radar. More than a dozen squadrons, including Polish units, would eventually operate the Defiant in this role. In this capacity she served until 1942, by which time more modern and capable designs were assuming night fighter duties.

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Much maligned by her critics, the Defiant fell foul of a frequent reality in war - the breaking of all assumptions about 'a' war when 'the' war comes along. Like many other types, she enjoyed a brief renaissance once a job was found that suited her 'talents'.