TBF Avenger - not standard wing machine guns?

[WESTLAND]

Hello. I found some shots of TBF-1/1C with 6 holes on the wing. I have only one assumption - these are not standard wing machine guns. Perhaps someone has information about this?

 

[Wurger]

According to the AJ-Press book no.81 for the TBF/TBM Avenger , the TBF-1 at the Munda Island in 1943 had the additional machine gun ports painted at the leading edges to make the Avengers look like the Hellcat head on in order to misslead Japanese pilots.
The taking off TBF Avenger of the VT-28 on the USS Monterey (CVL-26) in June 1944 also seems to have the MG barrel slot patches stuck on just for the same purpose.

here the caption for the pics from the AJ-Press book...

 

[WESTLAND]

According to the AJ-Press book no.81 for the TBF/TBM Avenger , the TBF-1 at the Munda Island in 1943 had the additional machine gun ports painted at the leading edges to make the Avengers look like the Hellcat head on in order to misslead Japanese pilots

Apparently, the Americans considered the Japanese pilots to be special people, capable of not seeing the Avengers big turret in battle, but able to notice and count the small holes on the leading edge of the wing. Thanks for the help!

 

[MIflyer]

In the Squadron In Action book there is an an Avenger with four "guns"on the leading edge of the wings.

However the first installation of additional guns for a TBF was when VT-10 installed a .50 cal gun externally on the wingroot of the commander's TBF-1.

 

[Wurger]

And the caption from the Squadron/Signal In Action book for the Avenger printed below the same pic of the Marine TBF-1 on the Munda Island in 1943.

And two enlarged shots of the "painted" MG slots ...

the pic source: TBF Avenger Photographs | World War II Database

 

[cammerjeff]

Apparently, the Americans considered the Japanese pilots to be special people, capable of not seeing the Avengers big turret in battle, but able to notice and count the small holes on the leading edge of the wing. Thanks for the help!

At least 1 very successful IJN ace found they looked very much alike Saburō Sakai was almost killed when he mistook a TBF for an F4F (or F6F I can't remember ) from low and behind closing in and receiving a well aimed burst of fire from the defensive guns.

I don't know how effective the painted on forward firing guns would be though.

So the profiles were alike enough to fool an experienced and well trained aviator.

 

[MIflyer]

Turns out the TBFs that looked like F4F's were SBD's; they shot up Saki.

Fake guns were not used very much by us. Doolittle's raiders had broomsticks poking out of the transparent tail cap, but since the A model of the B-25 really did have a gun back there, it was a good subterfuge.

The Germans painted the noses of hard nosed Ju-88's to look like it was the clear nosed version to try to sucker the Soviets into making head on passes. And the USAAF tried painting the noses of the Droop Snoot P-38's and the gun armed versions alike so that the Germans would not know they were on a formation bombing mission.

 

[Barrett]

Ken Walsh (VMF-124) had a photo of a Corsair with "eight" wing guns.

 

[GrauGeist]

It was not uncommon to alter the appearance of an aircraft for defensive purposes.

The Germans painted false glazing on their Ju88C gunships to make them appear to be standard bombers.
And fighters making a head-on pass found out real quick that these were not what thought they were...