A Day with the A-36s in Sicily plus captured Axis Aircraft in color -- 1944

[johnbr]

 

[MrSmoothie]

Great films! I wonder, was there ever consideration to using the A-36's 4x20mm cannon on the P-51B? Or was there a weight consideration?

 

[Deadeye18]

This is great stuff thanks for posting it! A souvenir hunters paradise I'd say.

 

[stug3]

Great films! I wonder, was there ever consideration to using the A-36's 4x20mm cannon on the P-51B? Or was there a weight consideration?

A-36s had 6 .50 cal. mgs, 2 in each wing, 2 under the nose. Using the .50s allowed more ammo to be loaded because the rounds were smaller than 20mm, giving it more firing time. I think thats the main reason they were used in P-51s too. I think American 20mm fighter guns had reliability issues up to that point also. The .50s were very effective in fighter combat, and on unarmored ground targets, with incendiary rounds being especially destructive.

A-36

 

[MrSmoothie]

A-36s had 6 .50 cal. mgs, 2 in each wing, 2 under the nose. Using the .50s allowed more ammo to be loaded because the rounds were smaller than 20mm, giving it more firing time. I think thats the main reason they were used in P-51s too. I think American 20mm fighter guns had reliability issues up to that point also. The .50s were very effective in fighter combat, and on unarmored ground targets, with incendiary rounds being especially destructive.

A-36
View attachment 560949

That's what I thought the A-36 armament was -- so in the color film, there's footage starting at 1:35 of two landing that do have 4 x 20mm -- are those actually P-51A's do you think? If so, kind of interesting that they would be in the same squadron -- or maybe that was typical?

 

[stug3]

That's what I thought the A-36 armament was -- so in the color film, there's footage starting at 1:35 of two landing that do have 4 x 20mm -- are those actually P-51A's do you think? If so, kind of interesting that they would be in the same squadron -- or maybe that was typical?

I think they probably are P-51A's, but I dont think it would be typical because I dont think they made many with 20mm. I wonder if they may have been testing new and/or improved 20mm guns in actual combat? Ive never heard of that occurring, IDK.

 

[MIflyer]

Those are P-51-1's (or F-6A's) originally were assigned to the 154th Observation Squadron when it was deployed to Tunisa and flew the first USAAF Mustang missions of the war. Over on the USAAF website someone said he found from the unit history that the A-36 unit acquired some of those former 154th OS aircraft and used them for strafing missions where they needed an extra punch.

I noted those P-51-1's in that film some years ago and asked if anyone knew anything about the A-36 unit using those aircraft.

Best book about personal experiences with the A-36 use in the Med that I know of is "Those Were The Days" by Savage.

By the way, the Allison engined version of the Mustang came in these versions:

NA-73X prototype.

Mustang Mk I (NA-73 and NA-91) for the RAF was the initial production version, 620 built. Only USAAF equivalent were the two XP-51's.

Mustang Mk IA for the RAF was the next version, armed with four 20MM guns. USAAF version was the P-51-1 and with cameras added became the F-6A, which equipped two squadrons in North Africa. Only 150 were built, with 93 going to the RAF and the rest to the USAAF. The last two P-51-1 built were converted into the XP-51B.

A-36A dive bomber version (NA-97), 500 built.

P-51A (NA-99) 310 built during March 1943. 50 P-51A's were supplied to the RAF as the Mustang Mk II to replace the P-51-1's used by the USAAF. 35 were converted into F-6B, which were the only Allison engined Mustangs operated by the USAAF in Great Britian.

 

[MIflyer]

Here is an article from the Fall 1990 issue of the AFM Friends Journal about flying the A-36. However, despite what the author says, they did use the dive brakes in combat,

 

[NVSMITH]

I think they probably are P-51A's, but I dont think it would be typical because I dont think they made many with 20mm. I wonder if they may have been testing new and/or improved 20mm guns in actual combat? Ive never heard of that occurring, IDK.

-Using Occam's Razor, could it be simply that someone wanted to keep similarly built Allison powered aircraft together?

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff!