Alan Dicey wrote:

ANDREW ROBERT BREEN wrote:
Freeman Dyson, who did the Op.An, on the night bombers, is worth
reading on this. Essentially - lose the ventral turret: speed goes up,
losses down. Lose the dorsal and nose turrets on the Halibag - and losses
went down. Lancaster was already good enough to not mess much more with
(it upset the production lines), but certainly H2S in ventral was much
better for bombs-on-target and crews back home than the dustbin turret.

The trade off was different in daylight, of course.


The subject of under-turrets came up in a recent thread "Has there ever
been an off-center gun?"

From my reading, only the Sperry ball turret seems to have been
successful. Periscopic arrangements didn't have sufficient field of
view, and it was very difficult to acquire the target in the sights.
Dustbins were cold and draggy, some even being open to the breeze.

In the Manchester, for example, lowering the dustbin under-turret
apparantly produced a marked change in trim, and a gunner described the
experience of manning one as like getting into a refrigerator with the
lights out.

So in addition to being a drag, the ventral positions on British bombers
weren't much good even as look-out positions.

Has anyone mentioned the turrets on the Soviet Petlyakov Pe-8 ??

This had 'normal' nose, dorsal,& tail turrets - but it also had two turrets in
the rear end of the inner engine nacelles.

They would have had a clear view rearwards, and being mounted out on the wings,
they also had a clear field of fire downwards.

I can't say how effective they were - the Pe-8 suffered from the lack of an
efficient engine - plus the ravages of the German attack which forced the
evacuation of of all the production facilities.

But it was an interestiong design nonetheless.

I don't have any pics of the real thing - but my modelling article on the Pe-8
is at :- http://vvs.hobbyvista.com/ModelArtic.../Pe8/index.php

Ken

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Ken Duffey - Flanker Freak & Russian Aviation Enthusiast
Flankers Website - http://www.flankers.co.uk/
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