These men and machines crippled Japanese shipping in ways that surface ships and conventional bombers had not.







The video gets a bit ( a lot) repetitive halfway through but if you hang in there, you'll see more photos from that time.

I found these interesting too:

A-20 Havocs (or Bostons as named by the Brits) had similar set ups as well.

I just watched that first video the other night.

I thought the B-25 was just another bomber.
Turns out the Japanese were really shaken by these things that could supposedly cut a ship in half while skimming the waves and/or skip a fused bomb into it.

A friend of mine's husband flew in one in the South Pacific during WWII. It had 8 50s in the nose, 4 on the fuselage, and 2 in the turret. He said that it could tear the shit out of just about anything.

There is a B-25 in this configuration in the Kalamazoo Air Zoo:

https://www.airzoo.org/wwii/ai...n-b-25-mitchell-1940

The best part of the B-25 Commerce Raiders was what happened after Bismark Sea.

General Kenney was called to DC for meetings. Grumbling, he flew from PNG to DC (took like four days).

In General Arnold's office (COS of the Army Air Forces at the time), Kenney met with a bunch of aero-engineers from Wright-Pat who informed him that such modifications were unlikely to work.

Kenney' response was "12 of them won Bismark Sea. Pappy Gunn [the guy who thought them up]is modifying every airplane we have as we speak."

General Arnold threw the engineers out of his office.

Great reads and videos posted here. Thank you!

Martin Caidin wrote a great book called "Whip" about these B-25s. It's more of an historical novel with a great story wrapped around the factual details.

quote:

Originally posted by NOCkid:
A friend of mine's husband flew in one in the South Pacific during WWII. It had 8 50s in the nose, 4 on the fuselage, and 2 in the turret. He said that it could tear the shit out of just about anything.

There is a B-25 in this configuration in the Kalamazoo Air Zoo:

https://www.airzoo.org/wwii/ai...n-b-25-mitchell-1940

Thanks for the reminder! I live about 2 hours away from K-Zoo. It'll be on my list of fall season trips.

A friend of mine's dad passed at 100 a couple of years ago. He was a pilot when the war started, and he was given the job of setting up B-25s when they came off the assembly line in Kansas City. He'd test fly and make adjustments and sight in the guns. Sometimes they'd run errands in the new planes such as picking up parts. He talked of the great pride all had in providing the combat fliers the best plane they could.

He said it was the best time of his life, likely from doing important work, and maybe for social reasons also. He was one gifted with a resting smile face, which helps getting along with everyone. His nickname was Wink since his first name was Winthorp.

quote:

Originally posted by NOCkid:
A friend of mine's husband flew in one in the South Pacific during WWII. It had 8 50s in the nose, 4 on the fuselage, and 2 in the turret. He said that it could tear the shit out of just about anything.

There is a B-25 in this configuration in the Kalamazoo Air Zoo:

https://www.airzoo.org/wwii/ai...n-b-25-mitchell-1940

A beautiful example of the B-25 sitting there. A B-25H was one of the first non-snap together models I built as a kid.

Pappy Gunn was a complete badass. Amazing man. The reason he is not famous like other WWII heroes is that his wife and children were interned (Prisoner of) by the Japanese after the fall of the Phillipenes. He did all he could to keep his name out of the papers.

OZ

My favorite B-25 configuration. Besides the B-25 and A-20 variants I believe the Brits also had a Mosquito variant gunship as well. Not as many guns up front but the same idea.

The British Beaufighter was heavily armed also. 8 wing mounted .303 machine guns and 4 20mm cannons. Plus can carry rockets,bombs and torpedo

I've been watching a number of these types of WWII videos recently. That first one was very well done. Thank you.

quote:

Originally posted by Tailhook 84:
Martin Caidin wrote a great book called "Whip" about these B-25s. It's more of an historical novel with a great story wrapped around the factual details.

In addition to being a writer, Caidin ("Cyborg," basis of The Six Million Dollar Man TV-series) was an accomplished pilot and wrote a number of historical books on various aircraft of WWII. I found several of them in a used book store many years ago and still have a couple in storage (somewhere!).

Minor thread drift: An MD ANG A-10C just made its final flight from Martin State Airport to Hagerstown MD where it was bult 46 years ago. It will go on display at the Fairchild Museum.

https://theaviationist.com/202...ds-a-10c-operations/

quote:

Originally posted by Belwolf:
A-20 Havocs (or Bostons as named by the Brits) had similar set ups as well.

My father was an A-20 pilot with the 89th Attack Squadron in New Guinea in 1942/43. He also flew some with the 13th Squadron.
Before they got their A-20s he was tasked to take a B-25 on a photo mission to Rabaul. Just he and a co-pilot and I think 1 gunner and a canera operator. Get in and get back out. This was from Australia I believe because once they got their A-20s they went up to Port Moresby, NG.
He missed out on the Bismarck Sea battle as he was in the hospital in Australia with Dengue Fever or Malaria, can't remember which.
He was in on the first use of parafrags at Lae. Those were General Kenney's idea.
I have Kenney's book General Kenney Reports. It is basically a day-by-day diary of the air campaign.
More to follow later as I have to get to work.
Also, my avatar, generously hosted by another member, is in honor of my father.

Excellent video and simply highlights why we need a real follow-on to the A10 and it isn’t the F35

quote:

Originally posted by StarTraveler:
In addition to being a writer, Caidin ("Cyborg," basis of The Six Million Dollar Man TV-series) was an accomplished pilot and wrote a number of historical books on various aircraft of WWII. I found several of them in a used book store many years ago and still have a couple in storage (somewhere!).

One of those was "Flying Forts" about the B-17. A good read.

quote:

Minor thread drift: An MD ANG A-10C just made its final flight from Martin State Airport to Hagerstown MD where it was bult 46 years ago. It will go on display at the Fairchild Museum.

Off topic: The latest issue of The American Rifleman has an article about a new ammunition company, First Breach, that has set up shop in the old Fairchild factory in Hagerstown. Do I remember correctly that this was right along I-70(?) with an airstrip right in front of the factory?
We used to drive from Pittsburgh to DC back in the early 70's, before production of the A-10 started.