And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Infantry support, lightly armored craft and interdiction for a really bad day. Some of the aircraft had 20mm in the nose also. The fore father of the Warthog.
The second iteration was to add a couple more .50's on each side below the cockpit. Since the top turret could be locked forward to add to the fun, the pilot had 14 total .50 cal guns to play with. Made a mess of the Japanese barges used for supply runs. Some crews added a few more guns scattered around the front. Inside the wings, under the nose, etc.
Ya gotta remember, such iterations largely were unauthorized field modifications made by flight and ground crew in PNG.
(Word would find its way back to aircraft designers. They would then work to improve on the field mods - putting stamp of approval too - or strengthen bulkheads and such.)
Several aircraft sported twelve .50s, eight pilot controlled, four in the waist or tail.
Some mods didn't work so well. Wing rockets were burning off the ailerons or flaps.
The parachute bomblette was invented by those guys. Following aircraft were getting torn up in low level raids (a tactic favored by -25s and A-20s alike) so the use of parachutes added time to allow all aircraftvto leave the area before detonation.
The B-25 in PNG was the birth of the gunship concept. The first Spooky was a -25. Puff was a DC-3.
One of the various factors that the pilots had to deal with was the total recoil from 14 or more heavy machineguns facing forward did have a braking effect on air speed. The warning was to not fire if they hadn't lost some altitude during the firing run, and to avoid shooting if they had been loafing around while doing aerial recognizance at low altitude. There was some concern that aircraft had been lost due to low speed stall/spin results, and not actually return fire from the targets.
The Devil Dog lives at the Georgetown, TX Municipal Airport. I've watched it fly over Georgetown Lake while camping and took my daughters to sit in the cockpit when they were in Junior High. Beautiful plane.
I imagine that could spoil yer day.
ReplyDeleteInfantry support, lightly armored craft and interdiction for a really bad day. Some of the aircraft had 20mm in the nose also. The fore father of the Warthog.
ReplyDeleteSpin Drift
BRRRRT
Delete37mm in the nose on some planes
DeleteI never knew that the USMC flew a bomber (maybe a B-25 Mitchell bomber...
ReplyDeleteaka PBJ
DeleteB-25.
DeleteHell on Japanese landing barges and lighter commercial shipping.
The grandaddy of the A-10.
I read recently that they had to add lead in the rear of the aircraft to help level out the trim because the guns and ammo weighed so much up front.
ReplyDeletehar, har
DeleteGreat for attacking shipping too. At least the lighter built ones.
ReplyDelete8 Ma Deuces can bring a lot of hate. Get some.
ReplyDeleteThe second iteration was to add a couple more .50's on each side below the cockpit. Since the top turret could be locked forward to add to the fun, the pilot had 14 total .50 cal guns to play with. Made a mess of the Japanese barges used for supply runs. Some crews added a few more guns scattered around the front. Inside the wings, under the nose, etc.
ReplyDeleteYa gotta remember, such iterations largely were unauthorized field modifications made by flight and ground crew in PNG.
Delete(Word would find its way back to aircraft designers. They would then work to improve on the field mods - putting stamp of approval too - or strengthen bulkheads and such.)
Several aircraft sported twelve .50s, eight pilot controlled, four in the waist or tail.
Some mods didn't work so well. Wing rockets were burning off the ailerons or flaps.
The parachute bomblette was invented by those guys. Following aircraft were getting torn up in low level raids (a tactic favored by -25s and A-20s alike) so the use of parachutes added time to allow all aircraftvto leave the area before detonation.
The B-25 in PNG was the birth of the gunship concept. The first Spooky was a -25. Puff was a DC-3.
One of the various factors that the pilots had to deal with was the total recoil from 14 or more heavy machineguns facing forward did have a braking effect on air speed. The warning was to not fire if they hadn't lost some altitude during the firing run, and to avoid shooting if they had been loafing around while doing aerial recognizance at low altitude. There was some concern that aircraft had been lost due to low speed stall/spin results, and not actually return fire from the targets.
DeleteWe produced over 6 million .50 cal. machine guns during the war. They became a solution in search of problems to solve.
ReplyDeleteWe've got lots of problems to solve, starting with the border.
DeleteDidn't add to the Maxim Family's body count.
DeleteThe Devil Dog lives at the Georgetown, TX Municipal Airport. I've watched it fly over Georgetown Lake while camping and took my daughters to sit in the cockpit when they were in Junior High. Beautiful plane.
ReplyDelete