Warbird Information Exchange

Here 's a cool shot of B-17E s/n 41-9244 "HONIKUM OKOLE" of the 63rd BS 43rd BG in New Guinea in eary 1943. Note the added nose guns. She was unfortunalely shot down by a Japanese night fighter on May21, 1943.

_________________
Don't touch my junk!!

Thats a lot of single guns for two people in the nose!!! its interesting to see the two 30 cals and the one 50 in the nose like that. Reminds me of the B-17 that had twin 50's at each waist and I believe a 2nd dorsal turret...YB-40.

_________________
Never drive faster than your Guardian Angel can fly!!

http://www.390th.org/
www.LSFM.org

Trae

Very cool! Do you have any more B-17 pics from the Southwest Pacific? I am reading "They fought with what they had" and I am just getting to the part where they are retreating from the Phillipines down into Java and Australia. Keep the pics coming if you have any more I really enjoy them!

Another good book is "Fortress Against the Sun" by Salecker. It goes into very great detail about the operations of the B-17 in the South and Southwest Pacific.

Great shot, Jack; Thanks!
Got any more SWPA B-17's?
If anyone's interested, check this link for more on "Honikuu Okole":

http://www.aerothentic.com/historical/m ... uOkole.htm

Also see if you can find the book 70,000 to 1 by Quentin Reynolds; very interesting story of Lt. Gordon Manuel of "Honikuu Okole" who was helped by New Britain natives to avoid capture by the Japanese.

Dave

Cool pics Jack!

I remember seeing a photo of a 4 gunned ball turret which I believe is kept in storage at the NASM (don't quote me on the museum). Apparently this was strictly a prototype and never saw service. Either way it was a mean looking S.O.B. and would've packed quite a punch. However, I still can't figure out how they could've stuffed four .50 cals when there was hardly room for two? If anybody out there has any pictures of this I'd love to see it again.

John

Very cool picture indeed!!! On a side note, would anyone know if those types of nose gun mounts are still floating around?