b25h armament

[camnite]

Having a lot of time to think while driving, i wonder if the h model would have been better served with a pair of 40mm oelkirloins(sp) and 6 50's rather than the 75mm. I would think that higher rof, more ammo availability in the pacific, and redundancy would have been big brownie points. Downsides that i can think of would be packaging, weight, and that the 40 was in such a high demand. Am i just thinking too far out of the box or was what they had good enough.

[BuckShot]

The 75 was hand loaded for each shot, wasn't it. I wonder if there was room for two big automatic 40mm cannons like that.

Would have been a beast with two 40s though.

[Ack-Ack]

Having a lot of time to think while driving, i wonder if the h model would have been better served with a pair of 40mm oelkirloins(sp) and 6 50's rather than the 75mm. I would think that higher rof, more ammo availability in the pacific, and redundancy would have been big brownie points. Downsides that i can think of would be packaging, weight, and that the 40 was in such a high demand. Am i just thinking too far out of the box or was what they had good enough.

It wouldn't have.  The 5th AF came to the conclusion that the strafer (solid nose B-25s) were just as effective as the 75mm equipped B-25s and I'm sure the 5th AF would have made the same determination even with a 40mm cannon equipped B-25.  That's why the 75mm cannon equipped B-25s were mostly phased out of the PTO and either sent back to the depot to have the 75mm removed and replaced with a .50 cal or sent to the CBI to fight in China.

ack-ack

[glzsqd]

The B25H was actually an autoloader, the G was the model that had to be hand loaded by one of the crewman.

 I'm still shocked that we have the B25H and b25C but not the B25J

B25J was used a lot more than the B25G or H, it was able to carry rockets and was just as capable as a strafer, it also offered the option for a glass nose bombsite while retaining 4 of its forward firing 50cals. If HiTech ever adds the tiny tim rockets, they better introduce the B25J as well....

[Saxman]

The B25H was actually an autoloader, the G was the model that had to be hand loaded by one of the crewman.

 I'm still shocked that we have the B25H and b25C but not the B25J

B25J was used a lot more than the B25G or H, it was able to carry rockets and was just as capable as a strafer, it also offered the option for a glass nose bombsite while retaining 4 of its forward firing 50cals. If HiTech ever adds the tiny tim rockets, they better introduce the B25J as well....

Would love to see the 12-gun strafer J.

[Karnak]

In post war tests I recall that it was concluded that the Molins 57mm automatic cannon was better than the 75mm hand loaded cannon.  If a Mossie can carry the 57mm gun I would imagine a B-25 probably could have carried two of them.

[Ack-Ack]

The B25H was actually an autoloader, the G was the model that had to be hand loaded by one of the crewman.

 I'm still shocked that we have the B25H and b25C but not the B25J

B25J was used a lot more than the B25G or H, it was able to carry rockets and was just as capable as a strafer, it also offered the option for a glass nose bombsite while retaining 4 of its forward firing 50cals. If HiTech ever adds the tiny tim rockets, they better introduce the B25J as well....

B-25H was also able to carry HVAR rockets.

ack-ack

[DaveBB]

A couple dozen B-25Hs were armed with radar gunsites for the 75mm.  It was extremely accurate (one B-25H blew the steel mast of a the wooden target ship in two), but required a long, straight run.  The 50 caliber nose guns with skip-bombing of 500lbers was found to be the most effective against shipping.  The B25H would dive in, strafe the ship, release its bombs several hundred yards out and let the bombs skip across the water into the side of the ship.  Then the tail gunner would attack the ship as the plane climbed away.

Parachute bombs were used against enemy airfields (parafrags).

By far the best book on B-25 combat is "Warpath across the Pacific".  It's worth it for the pictures alone.  And boy, there sure are some horror stories about B-25 crews who got captured.

[Mongoose]

The 50 caliber nose guns with skip-bombing of 500lbers was found to be the most effective against shipping.  The B25H would dive in, strafe the ship, release its bombs several hundred yards out and let the bombs skip across the water into the side of the ship. 

  I would love to be able to do this in game.  Maybe the game physics can be adapted to make it possible.  Off to the Wishlist forum.

[Ack-Ack]

  I would love to be able to do this in game.  Maybe the game physics can be adapted to make it possible.  Off to the Wishlist forum.

I would also like to see masthead bombing possible, it was more accurate than skip bombing ships.

ack-ack

[TheCrazyOrange]

It's really a shame nobody though to use bombers as gunships in a similar manner to the AC-47 and AC-130. I imagine that they would be quite effective, what with MANPAD's having yet to have been developed.

[DaveBB]

AA and AAA destroyed aircraft in the tens of thousands.

[FLOOB]

Zenos to the rescue. Here is footage of b25s with 75mm attacking an airfield. It's toward the end of the video at about 16 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGjGJHrQxy8
"At two miles out the b25s open fire with their 75mm"

[SmokinLoon]

Zenos to the rescue. Here is footage of b25s with 75mm attacking an airfield. It's toward the end of the video at about 16 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGjGJHrQxy8
"At two miles out the b25s open fire with their 75mm"

That us awesome video of these attack, THAT is NOE  flying. Wow. Firing at 3500 yards = area saturation rather than specific targets. Great video. Thanks for sharing

[Saxman]

That must have been one hell of an impressive volume of fire those Gs were throwing out.

One time the Bucs decided to do a surprise B-25H raid on a V-base. There were about 6 of us online that night, and we leveled it in seconds.