He177 Speed and Climb

[wuzak]

Thanks.

 

[Denniss]

From A-0 manual:
bombardier: nose poop gun (A-Stand oben)
radio man: remote 2 MG 131 (B-Stand)
one gunner for bottom front and rear gun (A-Stand unter, C-Stand)
rear gunner
A-0 had five crew but did not have the second MG 131 top rear gun, following versions had 6 crew.

Not optimal to have only one guy for the two bottom guns but there was not really sufficient space for two guys there.

 

[Shortround6]

Thank you.

Some other bombers had two gun stations manned by the same crew member (A-20 top and bottom rear guns, for one) so this is not a criticism of the He 177 alone but shows that merely listing the number of guns doesn't tell the whole story. Just as even B-17s (and others) changed mountings and later planes had more effective mountings than earlier planes even though the total number of guns did not change.

Not all turrets were power turrets (Ki 21 used bicycle pedals for traverse) and not all power turrets had the same finesse of control for accurate tracking.