[Jim McDougall]

Stu, truly well noted and perfectly said. We have all together pretty much poured heart and souls into these forums in working to build knowledge together. While like any family we have had our ups and downs, the huge core of knowledge collected on these pages and archived will hopefully remain a resource found by those who will follow us, and help them as the continue the work we have all shared.

Thank you CC for the nudge back to topic, and very well made point, the Spandau for use in these planes had to have been air cooled as the weight of water would have been too much. It does not seem they carried an excessive weight of ammunition either. As I mentioned, there was a 'counter' which kept count of the number of rounds spent.
There do not seem to have been the 'guns blazing' scenes naturally employed often in depictions of air battles, and it was more the minimal rat-tat-tat, short bursts more accurately portrayed.
That being the case, the overheating of barrels would not have been a likely problem as you note.

Most of the Spandau's I have seen offered in sales seem to be more the ground use versions, most of which do not have the familiar heat shields covering the barrel. Having noted that, it seems curious that these 'aviation' guns as used would not have needed such a feature as the barrels were not likely to overheat.
Perhaps these heat shield surrounds on these guns for use on these planes were indeed to perhaps capture the air passing over the gun as useful in air cooling the barrel?

Looking into cooling of the allied guns.