Good post Anarky. As for "I find this whole buff discussion very interesting, because I saw the whole thing happen in AW, extremely similar to what people are saying here." I wonder why?
I agree that in emergencey evasives a gunner shouldnot nor could shoot as shown in the eyewitness acount.
But folks are talking about turning and banmking the plane like normal and being able to stil lshoot the guns. I think a blakcout or rendering useless of guns for xxxx amoutn of time during and just after such maneuvers would be well called for as an implementaion in the AH code.
But there are many stories and first person accounts of B17 and B-24 pilots maneuvering thier planes while thier gunners tried (and quite often succesfully) shoot down attacking enemy aircraft.
Here's a good one (and also only because it's the one I can find right off the bat on the 'net):
Flying Fortress soon entered a rain squall. The windows were
black with clouds and rain and the plane was buffeted by strong
winds. Emerging from the squall at low altitude into blinding
sunlight the B-17 emerged only fifty feet from their adversary.
Immediately every gun on both aircraft began firing in a broad-
side exchange reminiscent of age old sailing ship battles.
Thousands of bullets crisscrossed the narrow spread of air and
the Fortress shuddered from the impact. Tracer bullets from the
B-17 pelted the Mavis like darts with many ricocheting off its
armor. The Mavis made a tight turn and Loberg turned inside him
to avoid the mortal sting from the Mavis tail guns. In and out
of rain squalls this interesting dogfight continued for 45
minutes. The Mavis kept very close to the wave tops to protect
its vulnerable under belly. Several times during the fight
the Mavis disappeared for three or four minutes into clouds,
but each time as it reemerged Loberg's B-1 7 resumed the attack.
Twice the B-17 passed over the H6K so close that the jagged
bullet holes in the Mavis and the round glasses on its two
pilots could be seen clearly. Finally, the Mavis began smoking
and the Japanese plane dropped into the sea and exploded in a
large ball of flame. In the words of Ira Wolfert, a war
correspondent, who was on the flight,
"During the duel, the
Fort that I was on, with a bullet in one of its motors and two
holes as big as Derby hats in its wings, made tight turns with
half-rolls and banks past vertical. That is, it frequently stood
against the sea on one wing like a ballet dancer balancing on
one point and occasionally it went over even farther than that
and started lifting its belly toward the sky in a desperate
effort to keep the Jap from turning inside it... Throughout
the entire forty-four minutes, the plane, one of the oldest
being used in the war, ran at top speed, shaking and rippling
all over like a skirt in a gale, so many inches of mercury
being blown into its motors by the superchargers that the
pilot and copilot, in addition to their other worries, had to
keep an eye on the cowlings to watch for cylinder heads
popping up through them."
Others on Loberg's crew that day were B. Thurston the copilot,
R. Spitzer the navigator, R. Mitchell the bombardier and E.
Gustafson, E. Jung, G. Holbert, E. Smith and R Bufterbaugh who
manned the guns during this unusual dogfight. Both Mitchell and
Spitzer were wounded during the battle."
- Westy
