I forgot about the Canal Zome entirely. Technically, Mexico is foreign, but I'm not sure it qualifies as overseas. Ditto the Canal Zone ... it certainly is deployed outside the U.S.A., but is it overseas? I suppose it is if you fly direct. Actually I weas thinking of ETO and PTO and forgetting entirely about the Canal Zone. Technically, I'm not sure what theater it falls into ... in my aerial victories file I have ETO, PTO, MTO, CBI, Alaska, Central Pacific, Southwest Pacific, North Pacific, and Iceland. Now that I think of it, I believe there is a theater definition entitled "Other Overseas Areas," and the Canal Zone may fit into that category. I'll check next time I am looking at werial victories for some reason.
We have had speakers on this subject describe attacking U-boats with bombs. We have not started yet on any hardpoints ... if there are any, in fact, we are just starting to take apart the starboard outer wing, but there would really be little use for a u-boat spotter that was unarmed. I KNOW it has at least 2 MG and the former crew says they dropped small bombs on u-boats and straffed. Maybe there were local modifications for small ordnance? I am working on airframe and have not even looked at the etire set of blueprints. Basically I examine the bluprints of what I am working on in order to get the material and fastener specs. We use them for measuremnts when required, but mostly use origianl existing parts for sheet metal duplication.
Let's say it definitely has at least 2 MG (one fixed and one flex) and there are war stories of dropping bombs and depth charges ... but I would not state that external ordnance was standard from North American. I cannot recall any harpoints at this time, but I also wasn't looking for any, either. I see Wiki doesn't say it had any external ordnance. Maybe you are correct.
If so, I fail to see that a 30-cal MG and a flex MG could cause a U-Boat to have much difficulty. It certainly might make it dive and run, though.
Here is a pic of an O-47. Check out the huge ADF loop on top! We have the original for our aircraft.:
Here is a pic of a depth bomb being unloaded from the wingtip of an SOC Seagull.
That isn't exactly a stock item, either, but it got used. We have had people describe that, too. I found this pic awhile back and was never sure until I did find it that the stories were true. Perhaps local mods were made allowing attack from an O-47 other than by MG but, failing to have any proof of same, I can only say we have heard it and will restore this O-47 per prints. If I find any hardpoints going forward, I'll update this thread, but we probably have a couple of years to go on just the stub wings.
We discovered the port stub wing, which was done by earlier generations of volunteers, needs some things reworked, so this could be a long-term project.