B-25j/h

[sturmovik]

I just noticed that in the Dutch OOB units # 91 and 95 are listed as B-25J's, but carry the 75mm cannon of the B-25H, which is what I suspect was meant.

I also wanted to point out the possible need for a B-25J Fighter bomber unit. The 800 built model J with the solid 8+4 MG nose was popular at least in the Far East with the 5th Air Force and I've read that even with the H model the cannon was often considered unwieldy and replaced by a pair of .50's.

There's a great book called The Flying Buccaneers that details the exploits of the 5th Air Force and also their field conversions of B-25C's and A-20B's into strafing machines by adding 4 .50s in the Bomb aimers position. They also added the first package guns to the nose of a B-25 and came up with the concept of Para Frags.

[DRG]

I added the J a few weeks ago. This version assumes the top turret is locked forward so the MG count is 14. I'll put the Dutch ones on the list to check


Don

[sturmovik]

Can anyone comment on how popular the 75mm cannon armed B-25 models were and how useful the cannon was? They made 1400 of the things so something had to be right, but the 5th AF book talked about how much the cannon shook connectors loose and fatigued the airframe thus causing a preference for MG armed models.