B-25 weapons thread
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- #722
MiTasol
1st Lieutenant
It appears to cover the life-raft hatch which really surprises me.
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- #724
Doing a little more digging and I guess its normal. You can see the raised plates in some of the pictures. Pictures came from different B-25 manuals.
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- #726
So I have been looking at this photo for a while now. Note the camera man is free holding the camera. Both in the Med and in China I know that the bottom turrnet was removed and in some instances it was replaced with a single or double 30 caliber machine guns. Note the bracket over the hole. I am wondering if this isn't one of them with the 30 caliber machine gun removed so they could take pictures with the camera. If so it would be one of the only sources I have seen as far as showing the mounting brackets for this type of setup.
Thoughts?
Thanks Paul
Thoughts?
Thanks Paul
My guess is to resist damage from muzzle blast.
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- #729
Well unfortunently this is not my bracket I was looking for. Took me quite a few manuals before I could find something to match the bracket but here it is. Oh well the search continues.
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- #730
Amazing details, Paul! I have never heard of this "Mitchell" before! It's from the J-15 block and one detail caught my attention:
View attachment 700265
In one of the modelling threads we already discussed (years ago) the bigger plate added in the nose of the a/c with 2 fixed guns on the right side (not all of them though). The flexible gun in this case was 4 " higher. This change is known to be done first on block J-20.If the one on the photo is not a completely new plate (looks very clean and some of the screws are modern ones IMHO) it's an interesting detail to think about.
But the second hole is of bigger interest. Could this be a gun camera mounting?
I haven't seen (so far) cameras mounted in this location. The standard gun camera position was in the cockpit (glazed nose airplanes). The H-models had the camera in the nose, above the 4 guns.
View attachment 700268
If this was a used a/c with field mods etc. one would say, they added something there. But that's a completely new frame. Whatever was there should be original, unless the whole plate is a new addition to the restoration.
Cheers!
P.S. Here is a photo of a brand new B-25J for the USSR:
View attachment 700270
The big plate is there but I can't figure out what's below the gun.
View attachment 700272
It could be the bombardier's windshield wiper mechanism for example. The drawing below shows the earlier small plate though. Detail A shows the motor and the actuator in the exact same area where the second hole in the later (bigger) plate is:
View attachment 700271
P.S. And yet another original photo of a Soviet B-25J-25 s/n 44-30004 with a big nose plate - I don't really see anything under the flexible nose gun.
View attachment 701111
Afternoon Yves,
Well the question we had talked about with the hole under the 50 caliber mount and got an answer. It was a light under the ball mount. Snap shot answer I got from the Warbirds of Glory Museum as I emailed them
Sounds like the light must have been simular to the post of Devil Dog that I had posted before.All the best
Paul
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- #731
Morning,
So been doing some thinking and research today. We really have not touch much about it in this thread but it could be argued the really first modified weapons configuration would be the Doolittle raiders Mitchell's.
For the longest time I always thought the wooden broom stick tails of the Raiders were a last minute add on thanks to the movies. It was hoped that this would make Japanese fighters leary of attacking the B-25's from behind. In reality the broom stick tail guns were thought up well before the aircraft arrived to the carrier. Below shows the wooden broom stick guns installed at Mid-Continent Airlines Hangar in Minneapolis, Febuary 1942. Source of Photo: Mid-Continent Airlines in Minneapolis - The Doolittle Raid
The below photo taken by me at Dayton Ohio Airforce Museum by me.
Below picture shows the tail of the B-25 Mitchells on the USS Hornet on it's way to Japan. Picture source web:
So been doing some thinking and research today. We really have not touch much about it in this thread but it could be argued the really first modified weapons configuration would be the Doolittle raiders Mitchell's.
For the longest time I always thought the wooden broom stick tails of the Raiders were a last minute add on thanks to the movies. It was hoped that this would make Japanese fighters leary of attacking the B-25's from behind. In reality the broom stick tail guns were thought up well before the aircraft arrived to the carrier. Below shows the wooden broom stick guns installed at Mid-Continent Airlines Hangar in Minneapolis, Febuary 1942. Source of Photo: Mid-Continent Airlines in Minneapolis - The Doolittle Raid
The below photo taken by me at Dayton Ohio Airforce Museum by me.
Below picture shows the tail of the B-25 Mitchells on the USS Hornet on it's way to Japan. Picture source web:
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- #732
