Why You Don't Land Long In A B-25

[Jack Cook]

Any questions

B-25G crash at Attu Nov 1943 Note the 343rd FG P-40s ready for take-off.

Is that an F-16 banking in the upper right corner ...

[Warbird Kid]

UFO

[bax101]

flying penguin?

[daveymac82c]

Yeah, I'm going with flying penguin on this one too.

-David

[The Inspector]

Another beautiful Summers day on Attu. So you thought landing on Marsdon mat was a snap EH? (thats PSP to those of you under 103)
Looks like he landed just fine but that darned icy matting......

[Dave Fish]

An example of "landing" a PBJ on only one engine. On Oct. 26, 1944, while VMB-611 was in route to Emirau Island, MB 13 blew a stack forcing the pilot back to Espiritu Santo. The Luganville bomber airbase control tower refused permission to land and directed the pilot to land north at the shorter Turtle Bay fighter airstrip...Poor Decision! With only one engine, the pilot forced the PBJ on the strip in his second attempt. He hit the emergency brake. The wheels locked. Both tires blew. The PBJ went off the end of the runway, hit land on the other side, tore off both engines, and stopped in the middle of a river with water flowing into both waist gunports. No injuries except a broken jaw of the co-pilot.

[Jack Cook]

Looks like he landed just fine but that darned icy matting......

According to P-40 ace Cy Gladen PSP with smashed crabs on it was the slickest. A P-40 sliding sideways on crab guts must have been a sight!!

[Django]

Holy Crap, the Final Countdown was TRUE!

[Dave Fish]

Jack,

Didn't the B-25Gs have the top-turret forward as the "J" and "H" models did? The Navy/Marines only had one PBJ-1G, never used in combat.

Dave

[Jack Cook]

Didn't the B-25Gs have the top-turret forward as the "J" and "H" models

Nope aft

[Dave Fish]

Jack,

Thanks...I know the USN/USMC only had the one "G" model, while VMB-613 was the only squadron to fly the PBJ-1H. I made an assumption that was wrong...I stand corrected.

[Jack Cook]

The 42nd BG 13th AF had quite a few Gs. They removed the 75mm cannon and added 2 x .50s to nake a 4 gun nose battery.

[Dave Fish]

I understand that the 75mm cannon was not a very effective weapon, manually and slow to reload with a big recoil that almost stopped the aircraft in flight. VMB-613 did a lot of patrols for Japanese shipping, but wasn't effective if they didn't get a hit with the first shot. I don't know if they removed the 75mm or kept using it despite it's ineffectiveness.

[JDK]

...with a big recoil that almost stopped the aircraft in flight...

Didn't we have a discussion about this? Numerous cannon have had the 'stop-in-flight' statement made about them, but there's no documentary evidence or good physics (Newton's third) to support it - it's always been the kinda tale that the old hands tell the greenhorns on arrival...

...or do I misremember?