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The others don't compare with Caidin. You put up a picture of 'Zero' (with introduction by Japanese Navy ace Saburo Sakai) but his much more infamous book was "Samurai" supposedly by Sakai. But it turned out Caidin wrote the book based on notes by a translator from interviews with Sakai, Caidin didn't even meet him. A lot of errors in that book have been pointed out since; not just perception errors by Sakai about the success of his unit (claimed 5 really downed 2, that sort of thing, which is par for the course); but stuff that's wrong from the Japanese side. Maybe Sakai misrecalled some of it, but again the book was apparently very lightly researched to fix any of that. The lack of confidence that any given statement in there really came from Sakai makes it an almost useless book IMO.Martin Caidin? Why, what's he done?
It's a growing list since joining this forum. William Green, Bill Gunston, Eric Brown and Dr Alfred Price are just a few I have read that are regarded as 'doubtful' here. The bookshelf is shrinking. Any others?
I believe that was a common retrofit in WWII, third .50. In any case by the time of the Korean War that was the standard fit. And later in that war some B-29's received faster firing M3 .50's in the tail only, 3 each.What I never understood was why the 20mm wasn't replaced by a 3rd .5 which would have resolved all of the above, while adding useful firepower. Some B-29Bs were equipped with 3 x .5s in the tail so the engineering 'fix' was available; never understood why the mod was never transferred to the main production run.
I believe that was a common retrofit in WWII, third .50. In any case by the time of the Korean War that was the standard fit. And later in that war some B-29's received faster firing M3 .50's in the tail only, 3 each.
For Korea there are many, examples photo's would be on pages 12 and 13 of Dorr "B-29 Superfortress Units of the Korean War" or the last photo in Futrell's "USAF in the Korea (official history), sorry no scanner handy. Triple M3's retrofitted later in that war is mentioned in Far East Air Force AF Bomber Command documents from late 1952.That's what I would have expected, but have never seen or read any evidence of same; never actually seen a photo of a 3 x .5 tail on a B-29B either for that matter! Have you any photos or references,
maybe off topic, but also some B-17 were modified by 20 mm cannon in tail...
one off them crashed few miles away from here, ser. No. 42-31885...
we were pretty kicked out when a friend of mine found 20 mm shells at the crash place... the picture of the rests of this machine shows the same...
more at 20 mm cannon aboard a B-17G???
even if, as I've seen written, a Mosquito could deliver the same mass of bombs on Berlin as could a B-17, a 500-Mosquito formation would not be able to use the Mossie's superior speed or maneuverability to escape.
That sounds like you expect a formation of 500 Mosquito bombers to operate in roughly the same as 500 B-17s. That is, in formation, bombing as a unit.
Which is unlikely, since the B-17 formations were mainly about creating zones of mutual defensive fire.
I don't doubt that you're correct, but what would be the best way to organize a daylight raid to drop a thousand tons or so of bombs on someplace in Germany?
even if, as I've seen written, a Mosquito could deliver the same mass of bombs on Berlin as could a B-17,
Mosquitos (at least the majority of them) could only carry 4,000lbs when using the 4000lb cookie.
I would also note that Mosquito carrying 500 Imp gallons of gas and a 4000lb cookie is over max gross weight and that doesn't count crew weight.