Warbird Information Exchange

It's up to the guys flying the aircraft-if the crew is more comfortable and confident and feel they are doing more effective damage with .50 Brownings chattering two feet under your butt than a 4 lb. shell going off in the confines of the Bombardiers tunnel plus all the out gassing when the breech is opened for reloading, then strap on more 50's and pass me a few more belts of mixed please-
And speaking of sliding on crabs, didn't anyone bring the drawn butter and bread and a few cold Barley sodas? Why do you think Sig and the other guys on 'Deadliest Catch' go to the Aleutians?

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

You are probably correct...the personal memory below of a VMB-613 squadron member is most likely closer to the truth...

"Anytime an aircraft returned from a mission, we needed to find out if the 75mm cannon had been used. If it had, we began a lengthy process to look over the entire aircraft. This was necessary as the firing of that cannon caused hydraulic leaks, and rivets in the airframe to shear-off. We used flashlights and crawled over every inch of the aircraft to locate leaks and damaged rivets so that they could be repaired before the next mission."

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In Honor and Memory of Marine Bombing Squadron VMB 611 "Black Seahorse" 1943-1945
Remembering 1st Lt Doit L Fish, MIA May 30, 1945 in PBJ-1J "MB 11"
Cherry Point - Parris Island - Emirau - Zamboanga

Thanks Dave, that sounds a lot more credible.

The 'Tetse' Mosquito, as wooden airframe, was fitted with a large cannon, and it worked well enough, but they found that a salvo of eight rockets was a lot better and a lot less problematic, complex and destructive to the host aircraft!

The original discussion, starting here

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James K

"Switch on the underwater landing lights"
Emilio Largo, Thunderball.

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