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#1
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B-17
Watched Memphis Belle again, anyone know how they kept from shooting each
other in those formations? |
#2
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Watched Memphis Belle again, anyone know how they kept from shooting each
other in those formations? Formation discipline, firing discipline and aircraft recognition training. The formations were supposed to be designed to give each gun a good field of fire without infringing on the other aircraft in the formation but the guns could traverse and elevate so that it was possible for friendly fire accidents to happen and they were not uncommon. The guy firing was supposed to know when to ease up as other friendly aircraft came into view or range. A few stray .50 caliber rounds were not nearly the threat that 20 mm and 30mm cannon shells were. John Dupre' |
#3
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Watched Memphis Belle again, anyone know how they kept from shooting each other in those formations? I've read official unit histories where deaths are noted among aircrews as being caused by .50s. More than one B-17 was lost when the pilots were hit in this manner - one gruesome story was a radioman that suddenly felt his ship begin to nose over, without any call from the flightdeck. He ran forward and found the copilot frozen in horror and the pilot decapitated beside him, victim of a .50 shot to the side of the head (they weren't in combat at the time, the other ships in the formation were just testing guns). After repeated attempts to pull the copilot away from his seat, the radioman rang the bailout bell and the rest of the crew began their escape, but the copilot never budged and rode the almost completely undamaged aircraft all the way down. In a formation with thousands of gunners, shooting from wobbly, jerking platforms moving in 3D, at targets also moving in 3D, there is simply no way to keep all the bullets away from the other friendlies. v/r Gordon ====(A+C==== USN SAR Donate your memories - write a note on the back and send your old photos to a reputable museum, don't take them with you when you're gone. |
#4
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I remember and old salty chief tell about when he was in his first squadron,
at the start on the "Big War". He was on one of the side blisters on a PBY, doing gunnery practice on a flock of Sea Gulls. He followed one right into the Port float.When they landed, the squadron Chief got him a new float and told him that he would be spending the weekend putting it on by himself. He said that it took him most of the weekend to get the job done, Involved a lot of shimming and running back and forth. On the bright side, he says that he never shot another one! Jack Old Fart Rotorhead |
#5
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v/r
Gordon ====(A+C==== USN SAR Donate your memories - write a note on the back and send your old photos to a reputable museum, don't take them with you when you're gone. Gordon, I love your sentiment. I've got a couple of museums as clients and they are working hard to get oral histories of veterans. They can only accept so many artifacts so those with a detailed history are intrinsicly more valuable. "This is dad's uniform and he served in the Marines during the Chosin withdrawl" is more valuable than a 1950's Marine uniform. Anyone interested in getting into veteran's registries please contact me. No, not associated with AWL. The group I'm working with closely is preserving the history of the 5 Sullivan brothers. MAH |
#6
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I've got a couple of museums as clients and they
are working hard to get oral histories of veterans. They can only accept so many artifacts so those with a detailed history are intrinsicly more valuable. Our museum has hundreds of thousands of originaly photos, but we still manage to surprise ourselves on occasion - today, I found a 5x7 of an odd little biplane with a mid-1920s date stamp and the name "Plywood Special". The indistinct pilot was just warming the lil thing up to go for a flight. I handed the photo to the man that painstakingly digitizes the never ending stream of photos that get donated to us, and his jaw went slack - only a week ago, he had found and scanned a photo of the same aircraft, fifteen minutes later, after Charles Lindbergh crashed it! We compared the miniature US flag stuck in the wing brace wires and its a match; a previously unknown photo of our man Chas, just before he earned admittance to the Caterpiller Club. "This is dad's uniform and he served in the Marines during the Chosin withdrawl" is more valuable than a 1950's Marine uniform. What I hate is that every Luftwaffe hat becomes "Adolf Gallands" and every brown pair of riding boots gets claimed to have been Rommels. That part gets old.. Anyone interested in getting into veteran's registries please contact me. No, not associated with AWL. Good! Obviously The group I'm working with closely is preserving the history of the 5 Sullivan brothers. Good on you. Five true heroes from America's past - definitely worth preserving. v/r Gordon ====(A+C==== USN SAR Donate your memories - write a note on the back and send your old photos to a reputable museum, don't take them with you when you're gone. |
#7
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Just saw an interesting photo in a B-24 book that I had not seen before. On
the bottom half of the twin vertical stabilizers (plainly visible from the waist gun positions) the squadron CO had stenciled " SHOOT HERE FOR HALF PAY". JK "Jack & Bev Biagini" wrote in message ... I remember and old salty chief tell about when he was in his first squadron, at the start on the "Big War". He was on one of the side blisters on a PBY, doing gunnery practice on a flock of Sea Gulls. He followed one right into the Port float.When they landed, the squadron Chief got him a new float and told him that he would be spending the weekend putting it on by himself. He said that it took him most of the weekend to get the job done, Involved a lot of shimming and running back and forth. On the bright side, he says that he never shot another one! Jack Old Fart Rotorhead |
#8
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"dougdrivr" wrote in message ... Just saw an interesting photo in a B-24 book that I had not seen before. On the bottom half of the twin vertical stabilizers (plainly visible from the waist gun positions) the squadron CO had stenciled " SHOOT HERE FOR HALF PAY". JK Was mentioned here or in RAM just the other day. Resulted from careless gunnery damage. Tex |
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