Bomber gun positions

I've never heard of the YB-40. I googled it, and wow! 14+ guns!

renrich said:

From what I have read, the cheek guns were mostly ineffective. They were 30 cals I believe and had little traverse.

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8th AF B-17E's came equipped for 'movable' 30 cal in a ball socket on a flat plane but quickly beefed up to .50's then in the F, continued with two cheek guns enabled to fire 'nearly' forward, and then field modified a truss mounted pair in a ball joint just above the CL of the 'nose glass' - that the Bombadier could fire twin 50's staight forward - the The G model eliminated that rig with the factory turret and gunsight.

When the G came out many of the a/c commanders got rid of one or the other, or both cheek guns depending on the wishes of the bombadier and navigator - only one guy could really use the cheek gun in a spray and pray environment

Oh so cheek guns were kind of a deterent to enemy fighters attacking at those angles rather than actual accurate defensive weaponry. I always though that they would be hard to use in combat

I was always under the impression that 'Tail end charlie' was the place you did NOT want to be, regardless of how many extra guns they gave you.

..Personally, though, would still rather be there than cooped up in a ball turret any day of the week..

magnocain said:

The ball turret was safest in combat; however it the door jammed so you could not get back in the bomber (as it often did), and the landing gear failed, you would have one flat gunner.

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Not really, this is discussed on another thread - the ball is a lot more robust than you might think....