Snautzer01
Honourably banned
- 38,171
- Mar 26, 2007
B-25 weapons thread
- Thread starter Micdrow
- Start date
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- #702
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- #705
Morning Yves,Hope this photo wasn't posted earlier in the same thread - over the years I started forgetting my own contributions.
View attachment 727944
A staged photo from the early B-25 months in North Africa. This are men from the 12th BG - the first B-25 group in the MTO. The interesting part is that the bombs we can see are not US but British. Don't mix this type of use with the RAF-Mitchells though.
Cheers!
Source: FOLD3 (those WWII photos are free for use and have no copy-rights to be afraid of!)
You might find this interesting to go with the picture.
MiTasol
2nd Lieutenant
For those who are not familiar with the two types of shackles here they are. I have seen many many type B-7 shackles but very few B-9s
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- #708
Chris_Hammerbeck
Airman
- 14
- Aug 6, 2008
I know I'm late to the party (and admittedly have spent more time lurking here than actually contributing - hopefully that will change) but does it look like the housing aft of the rear boarding ladder actually holds a 45-degree mirror such that the camera is actually within the plane, facing downward, but the mirror would allow the camera to take pictures to the rear? As I understand it, the 38th and 345th used K-21s for taking these rear-facing strike photos and I don't see how a K-21 would fit into that housing.
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- #710
Could be, Camera mountings seem to vary just as much as weapons on the B-25. There are several different types scattered in this thread. I hope Yves comes on, been trying to get ahold him but no dice so far.
Below is info from the AN 01-60GB-1 Pilots Flight Instuction manual for the B-25C and D series and Navy Models PBJ-1C and PBJ-1D of another mount that I dont think we have talked about yet here.
Chris_Hammerbeck
Airman
- 14
- Aug 6, 2008
Ah, yes, this camera mount. I've seen that same diagram and photo. My impression is that this mount, being the standard camera mount for the C/D, was used by combat mapping squadrons before the F-10 was developed. The 9th PRS had a B-25 that they used for photo mapping that I believe used this configuration, as did the early photo reconnaissance B-25s used by 681 Sqn RAF early in the war in Burma (see the photo from Eyes for the Phoenix below). That full mount and supporting structure would seem to be a lot of extra weight and would take up a lot of extra space for a combat plane IMHO, especially when the 38th and 345th BGs liked to mount guns out of the oblique camera windows. Looking at that photo that I was referring to with the potential mirror, it looks like the camera apparatus was mounted on the ventral camera window cover. I wonder if a K-21 could have been mounted vertically in a field-created camera mount positioned similarly to the one in Figure 44 above.
Attachments
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- #712
Morning Chris,
Not sure on the mirror but makes sense. As far as the camera goes in the C/D it goes back to the configuration of the B-25B model. You may find these interesting.
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So found this on facebook tonight. Glad I saved it as now I cant find the thread again. Note the rear side window under the tail along with the bullit holes in the tail Possible another tail modification? I don't remember ever seeing a window here.
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- #714
Attached is a mission report I created into a pdf detailing the the Mark 13 Aerial torpedo attack.
Source: 41st BOMB GROUP - Mission Reports - Google Drive
Chris_Hammerbeck
Airman
- 14
- Aug 6, 2008
Sorry for the long delay in responding. Thanks for posting these! I'm familiar with these but after seeing them again, I can see how it would be relatively easy to include the vertical camera on missions, especially a smaller strike camera, in that rear position. Assuming that's to scale, it wouldn't take up much space. Looking through a number of the 12th BG mission reports, anywhere from 1-3 planes would photograph any given mission. As I recall, there is a cover for the camera window when it was not being used which is probably why you rarely see the camera window exposed on in-flight photos. That and I suppose that many of the in-flight photos may have been taken from the photo plane to begin with.
Greg Boeser
1st Sergeant
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
I thought I was looking at the real thing until I read your caption.
Donivanp
Captain
Indeed I also thought it looked really real as opposed to 7' model!
