SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
Could those be field mods for a better flash suppressor?
B-26 Marauder weapons thread
- Thread starter Greg Boeser
- Start date
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- Thread starter
- #63
Greg Boeser
1st Sergeant
Yup. B-26B, 69th Bomb Squadron. I'm not sure of the serial #.
Asisbiz lists this as B-26B 41-17556, 69th BS. Says the photo was taken at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, 1943. I'm not sure how reliable that information is, I thought torpedo use was discontinued in late 1942.
USAAF 41 17556 B 26B Marauder 38BG69BS The Hattie M at Henderson Field Guadalcanal 1943 01
- Thread starter
- #65
Greg Boeser
1st Sergeant
Well, it was a staged shot. I've seen a wider view shot with more ordnance layed out. So it could be Cactus. 69th was there in Jan '43. This was probably the aircraft flown by Lt Howbert on 7 Jan 1943 during the low level attack on Rekata Bay. James Story's diary misidentified the serial as "7536" but that number is not part of the B-26B serials, which start at 41-17544. It can't be 41-17586, because that one had been shot down over Munda a few days prior.
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varsity07840
Airman 1st Class
- 176
- Jun 25, 2013
Here's a couple of photos of the .50 cal waist gun field modifications on 22nd Bomb Group B-26's. Note that one has a 50 round ammo box and no scanning windows. The other has a rater contorted flexible feed and it has scanning windows. They are the only photos I've ever seen of that installation. My question is, why bother? I can't see how either the view for either installation could be anything less than atrocious. The created drag must have been petty bad and moving the gun with the exposed ammo box or belt feed in a slipstream must have taken some effort. Supposedly the idea was to have heavier firepower combined with added visibility and gunner comfort while shooting at fighters passing by from the nose or tail. How and gunner could have time to swing the gun, aim and fire within the terribly small field of fire is beyond me.
- Thread starter
- #67
Greg Boeser
1st Sergeant
Well, if nothing else, it improved morale.
- Thread starter
- #68
Greg Boeser
1st Sergeant
During the first nine months of the 22nd's combat deployment, gunners claimed nearly 100 kills. Not one can be confirmed from Japanese records.
Never saw those scanning windows before. Where they common?
varsity07840
Airman 1st Class
- 176
- Jun 25, 2013
They were installed as a field modification along with the .50 cal installation. However, while I have seen a number of photos of the windows themselves, the picture above is the only one I've ever seen with the gun in place. That leads me to believe that in a lot of cases, the .30 cal guns were retained. Keep in mind that the existing rectangular windows for the .30 cal gins were originally scanning windows for the tunnel gun, not waist gum positions. At some undetermined time and place, .30 cal mounts were added to fire through the opened window. My guess is that it was done either in Hawaii while in transit to Australia, or soon after the 22nd's arrival there. The first photo shows a typical .30 cal waist position without scanning windows.If you look closely you can see the gun in the stowed position. the second one shows the field added windows. The tunnel gun fired through the entry hatch shown with the ladder.
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- Thread starter
- #71
Greg Boeser
1st Sergeant
The mounts for the .30 caliber waist guns were added Stateside pre-war. They were present already on the B-26s flown to Alaska in January 1942. The modified scanning windows above the waist windows were added around July 1942. The exact shape and placement varied from plane to plane.
varsity07840
Airman 1st Class
- 176
- Jun 25, 2013
Thanks Greg!
MiTasol
2nd Lieutenant
Looks like Douglas - not Martin - B-26 to me
Gotcha, missed it. Well I tried I guess LOL. Thanks for the correction
