MUTANT B-17 and B-24 Gunships!

[jamesberwick]

My dad worked for Lockheed at the beginning of the war and had part in inspecting the B-17, built under license from Boeing. They put as many guns and as much ammunition as possible on board. The problem when used in Europe, it was so heavy it flew fine with bombers that were loaded, but when they dropped their bombs, the flying gunship was still heavy and couldn't keep up with the other B-17s. They had to slow down to keep it in with them, the whole thing got dropped because of that.

[trollwholivesu]

Great video! Seems like a really similar story to the G6M, developed from the G4M. Also interesting how the G and B designations were kept, suggesting that they would be bombers, even though neither carried bombs.

[michaelnaven]

I like the 6 forward firing gun option. That would surely inhibit frontal head on attacks.👍👍👍👍

[pajiad]

At the US Air force museum in Dayton Ohio there is an excellent exhibit about Jay Zeamer the pilot of Old 666. His flight jacket and medals are on display along with a plaque telling his story of survival.

[williampaz]

While the gunship concept was good, once the regular B-17s and B-24s dropped their bombs they were lighter and therefore faster. But did anyone think of giving the gunships 4 bladed propellers with wider propeller blades? Maybe even adding more powerful engines and turbochargers…

[rcdogmanduh]

Innovation is never a "waste" ! I hate when people say that crap. During war many things are tried some successfully some not. If your not moving your a target.

[Bob.W.]

Wondering whether a B24 gunship could keep up with the B17s after they emptied their bomb loads, since the 24 was faster.

[jonathansteadman]

Avro Lancaster, 8 browning 303s and 3 times the amount of bombs
than a B 17. GOAT ! Not to mention it could carry 1000lb 'Cookie' + bombs. Well, you did start out with the R.A.F march song.

[richardlincoln]

Another good effort Brian, thanks for all the time and research You spend on these videos. Best Wishes to You and Your Family.

[BobSmith-dknw]

The thing with "Old 666" was it was a re-con aircraft - and so the bit about not being able to keep up with the bombers once they'd dropped their loads - was non applicable. There were no bombers - just the recon aircraft.

One thing about the American and British Bombers - was that they both carried about the same useful load. Since they were going to fly at night - and thought that would protect them - the British put more of that useful load - into bombs.

Since the Americans were going to fly during the day - and fight it out - they put more of that useful load into guns, gunners and armor.

The problem the British had - was that the Germans came to have a very effective Air Defense Network. Their Radar would track the British Bombers - and vector in Night Fighters to attack them. The Night Fighters had radar too - but - theirs was not as powerful as the ground based systems - so - they needed the vector from the ground based system to get close enough to their prey to pick it up themselves.

The thing with Fighter Escorts - was that they didn't have to wait for the enemy fighters to attack - they could go attack them. That made the machine guns in these fighters much more effective than the machine guns in the bombers. They could get really close to the fighter they were chasing and concentrate all that fire power right on it. That - and the enemy fighter couldn't run away. Then - the other thing these Escort Fighters could do on the way back - was attack enemy air fields.

The Bombers had DEFENSIVE fire - but the Fighter Escorts used OFFENSIVE fire - which was more effective.

The problem for the British was that even Allied Night Fighters assigned to "escort" the Night Bombers - were ineffective. The Allied Night Fighters didn't have ground based radar to vector them in on enemy night fighters - so - it was very hard for them to find any.

What they could do - was loiter around the air fields the Night Fighters were based at - and wait for them to come back - but - those airfields were very heavily defended - and they didn't know when these aircraft would be coming back.

Once the 8th Air Force had destroyed the Luftwaffe Day Force - the British started flying during the day - where the American Fighters could protect them. No one had any cure for the German Night Fighters.

Over Japan - LeMay changed tactics and instead of bombing Japan the way they had Germany - they switched to the Area Bombing tactic the British had used.

One thing about Japanese Industry - was that they tended to have a lot of manufacturing done in small little shops scattered all over the city. Parts would be brought together at an Assembly Plant - which could in fact be an open field. If we bombed the Assembly Plant all we would destroy was the stuff that was there when we bombed it - not - the little shops making all the parts.

The other thing was Japans cities were mostly paper and wood - so - they burned really well.

LeMay took all but the tail guns off the B-29's and the gunners as well. That let them carry more bombs - which were incendiaries. They flew at night - and as the Japanese Air Defense System was no where near the German's the B-29's were safe. The other thing was - since they were flying at night - they could fly at lower altitudes where the engines on these planes that had to fly such long distances over water would have less trouble with - than at high altitudes.

B-29's over Korea - flew during the day until the Communists got Mig 15's - then they switched to night bombing - which the Communists had no answer for.

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[MichaelCampin]

Give me a B26 Maurader with the solid nose with 8x . 50 and the gun pack on both sides

[Caseytify]

The 8th AF didn't encounter serious opposition until 1943.
And "the bomber will always get through" was based on actual fact. At the time the B-17 was faster than state of the art USAAC biplane interceptors.

[guv]

9:14 “for recycling” damn, very sad it wasn’t preserved

[jmmck]

Shame we didnt have the Gatling guns like we do today. Can you imagine?

[timesthree]

Englishman - lets hide in the darkness
American - more guns! NO MORE GUNS! MERICA!!!

[sr]

Slight correction. Old 666’s bombardier Joe Sarnoski, received the Medal of Honor in addition to the pilot, Jay Zeemer. Cool vid tho

[paulgreenberg]

The MoH megals were awarded to the Pilot and Baombadier. The Bombadier was killed defending his plane and was credited with 2 kills. Pilot lost his leg. God Bless them.all

[crabtrap]

The trick would have been, norm gun armerment + flak mortars. No need for external barrels. Germans had air to air mortar flak rounds

[Paladin]

There are more images of YB-40s and the sole XB-41 gunship presented here than I have found in all my previous internet searches. Thanks for remembering Old 666.

[jamesfulton]

Lucy was not a photo recon. She took part in a photo recon mission which elevated her fame.