MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
I got a new book in today with quite a few color pictures of the 9th AF in WWII.
Here is a shot of an A-26B of the 391st Bomb Group. Note it has a six gun nose and also four underwing pods with two .50 cal guns each, giving it the same forward punch as the later eight gun nose with the six built-in wing guns.
The 391st also operated clear nosed B-26C's with the same type of four underwing gun pods, enabling the unit to do mass level bombing as in the B-26, the solid nosed airplanes dropping their bombs when the clear nosed B-26C's bombadiers released the load.
I knew that A-20 units in Europe replaced their aircraft with A-26's, but the 391 BG had been equipped with B-26's before getting the A-26.
Here is a shot of an A-26B of the 391st Bomb Group. Note it has a six gun nose and also four underwing pods with two .50 cal guns each, giving it the same forward punch as the later eight gun nose with the six built-in wing guns.
The 391st also operated clear nosed B-26C's with the same type of four underwing gun pods, enabling the unit to do mass level bombing as in the B-26, the solid nosed airplanes dropping their bombs when the clear nosed B-26C's bombadiers released the load.
I knew that A-20 units in Europe replaced their aircraft with A-26's, but the 391 BG had been equipped with B-26's before getting the A-26.
