P-39s, Zeros & A-24s

rom: Cub Driver look@my

they were returning with empty guns?

Certainly a possibility. Even if they still had ammo for their cowl guns they
might have learned by that time in the war that attacking an alert and ready
B-25 formation with 30 cals was pretty pointless. The B-25 turret gunners
alone would have outmatched them. The C model had 3/4" steel plate armor
across the rear of the radio compartment bulkhead, thus protecting the interior
of the fuselage from gunfire from the rear. It would have easily stopped light
machinegun fire.

Somewhere I've got an account of a B-25-Zero duel. If I find it I'll post
pertinent parts. It was written by Hobart Skidmore. He was a combat
correspondent who probably saw a lot more of the air war than most air crew.
He was always ready to go and went out on night B-17 raids to Rabaul, B-25 and
B-26 raids against Lae and Salamaua, C-47 supply drops to Aussie troops on the
Kokoda Track, you name it.
I heard that many years after the war he began to suffer from nightmares about
his war experiences so terrible that they drove him to suicide. Don't know if
that is really true.


Chris Mark