Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: frank3 on March 27, 2011, 04:01:12 PM
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What versions of the B-17 had the dorsal gun? Was our B-17G equipped with one, or was it optional?
Would be nice to have our Fortress have a gun extra, although it would mean modelling the radio compartment ;)
(http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/aircraft/Boeing-B17/IMAGES/panel-of-boeing-b17-bomber.jpg)
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B-17C's through to the E models had them. I believe the F model had it as well, but they started removing them at the fields prior to the G coming in. The G model didn't have them. At least this is what I've gathered. If I'm wrong, someone will be along to correct me. :)
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B-17C's through to the E models had them. I believe the F model had it as well, but they started removing them at the fields prior to the G coming in. The G model didn't have them. At least this is what I've gathered. If I'm wrong, someone will be along to correct me. :)
yes and no. yes, up until F model, but INCLUDING early G-models
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B-17C's through to the E models had them. I believe the F model had it as well, but they started removing them at the fields prior to the G coming in. The G model didn't have them. At least this is what I've gathered. If I'm wrong, someone will be along to correct me. :)
So far as I know, all 17s, through the end of the war, had the radio room .50.
- oldman
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So far as I know, all 17s, through the end of the war, had the radio room .50.
- oldman
i dont think so, but i could be wrong. there were at least a few individual B-17s without the extra 50 cal
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My understanding is that once the B-17Gs got the staggered waist gun positions and the Cheyenne tail turret they no longer had the radio room gun.
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The Collings B-17 Nine-0-Nine came off the assembly line in early '45 and was equipped with the radio compartment gun.
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They didn't fly with them though. You'll note in the diagram that's an early model with open windows and wind deflectors?
Those were done away with. You had the windows closed in by plexiglass, you had the wind deflectors removed because of that. You had the radio room gun removed entirely. It wasn't doing any good, had a narrow range of focus, and (guessing) was probably distracting for the radio operator when he had better things to do in the middle of combat.
"Up until the later models of the B-17G, the radio operator had a .50 caliber machine gun located in the ceiling of his compartment that faced the rear of the aircraft. It was found that this was the least effective gun position on the aircraft since the majority of fighter attacks came from the front. Once fighter activity lessened during the latter half of the war, this gun was removed."
http://www.b17queenofthesky.com/positions/radio.php
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Right, the later G's with the staggered waist guns did not have the radio compartment gun, however the ealier G's still came equipped with them. Good times. :airplane:
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So far as I know, all 17s, through the end of the war, had the radio room .50.
- oldman
Some did and some didn't. In the book "Savage Skies", the author served as a radioman first on a B-17F and then later on a B-17G and in both cases the crew decided to remove the dorsal .50 caliber machine gun. The author also mentioned that when they started to receive their B-17Gs other crews also removed the dorsal gun while other crews kept it. Some crews even put the dorsal gun back in when they received the newer B-17Gs that came out of the factory without the dorsal gun.
ack-ack