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The angle of the wings always bugged me. Too droopy.

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Make mine a Marauder, Havoc or Invader.

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I get to see a B25 every time I fly.  Opening scene at General Mitchell International Airport - Milwaukee

http://www.warbirdsandairshows.com/images/Wisconsin%20Gate%20Guards/milwaukee-B-25-107w-1.jpg

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Wife's grand father was a waist gunner, he is on the left in 1st pic
http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp357/metalman3006/img007-1.jpg
http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp357/metalman3006/img009-1.jpg
http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp357/metalman3006/img012.jpg
http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp357/metalman3006/img008-1.jpg
http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp357/metalman3006/img011-1.jpg

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http://warbirds-eaa.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/JK00024Edited.jpg

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I never watched Catch22, I probably should.

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http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm189/Squid699/5443a_zps948dc02a.jpg

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Great illustration of the strain of command.

http://www.fototime.com/5DF64510B931A39/xlarge.jpg

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This one is at Falcon Field in Mesa, AZ
<a href="http://s818.photobucket.com/user/Mbradders/media/DSC01389_zps5dffafc1.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz105/Mbradders/DSC01389_zps5dffafc1.jpg</a>

Quoted:



I watched 30 seconds over Tokyo last night on you tube.

To improve bombing accuracy, Kenney advocated flying low-level attacks. But attacking ships at masthead height—which meant flying about fifty feet above the water—would require neutralizing shipborne antiaircraft artillery. For that task, Kenney turned to Maj. Paul "Pappy" Gunn, a colorful and innovative maintenance officer.  Gunn was known for being, in the words of an admiring Bell Aircraft factory representative, "exacting in efficiency and ability" and "able to do things with aircraft which others would not attempt." In the summer of 1942, Gunn had supervised a major modification of the A-20 in his experimental workshop at Eagle Farm airfield in Brisbane, Australia, that equipped the light bomber with nose guns for strafing.

The A-20's success undoubtedly stimulated Kenney's interest in further developing tactics that emphasized low-level bombing and strafing attacks to overwhelm antiaircraft opposition. Kenney directed Gunn to transform a number of Fifth Air Force B-25s into so-called commerce destroyers. Gunn installed ten .50-caliber machine guns: four in the nose, two on each side, and two more in the top turret. The 81st Air Depot Group in Townsville, Australia, then swung into production. Making only minor modifications to Gunn's plan, and putting in twelve- to eighteen-hour working days, it produced thirty B-25C-1s in the first three months of 1943.

The B-25C-1 enjoyed a number of advantages over the modified A-20s—a longer range, a heavier bomb load, heavier firepower, and upper-turret protection. Additionally, the B-25C-1 carried a copilot and included instruments for flying in stormy weather or darkness—"extremely comforting factors for the flyers," noted a Fifth Air Force report at the time. The B-25C-1 was, however, ten to twenty miles per hour slower than the A-20 and less maneuverable. The two thousand rounds of ammunition for the forward-firing guns made the aircraft nose-heavy, although pilots became accustomed to its unique flight characteristics after a few flights.

Pilots soon hit on a deadly technique: using the rudder to yaw the plane slightly back and forth during a bombing approach to sweep the entire deck of the enemy vessel with machine gun fire. That proved key in making it possible to drop bombs from an altitude that, in Kenney's words, "rendered a miss unlikely."  This extreme low-level bombing created new technical problems, however, since the normal bomb fuzes were designed to detonate immediately on impact—which would mean the airplane would be caught in its own bomb blast. Capt. Benjamin Thompson, an officer in the 26th Ordnance Company, altered the inner workings of an M106 fuze and developed a delayed-action version. That version was rushed into production in the field by the men of the 46th Ordnance Company, who had to work continuously for forty-eight hours in order to generate a sufficient quantity.

The rush was ordered because General Kenney knew what was coming: decoded Japanese radio messages had given the Allies almost a full month's warning of the sailing of another large Japanese convoy to Lae. Aircrews spent weeks carefully rehearsing tactics in preparation for the battle. Kenney canceled a major attack on Rabaul and reduced the number of daily combat sorties, so both maintainers and aircrew would have time to prepare. "Maintenance crews worked like mad getting every airplane in shape so that we could strike with everything we owned when time came," Kenney said.

Kenney ordered pilots flying the newly modified B-25s to undergo an especially intense training regimen. Most of these pilots were accustomed to medium-altitude bombing with a bombardier. Their new mission involved very low-level attacks in which the pilots themselves controlled the bomb release. Each pilot dropped thirty to forty bombs in practice on a half-submerged ship called the Moresby wreck, learning to use a reference point on the nose of the airplane in place of a bombsight. One bomber and crew were killed when they hit the mast of the wreck and crashed. Despite the loss, Maj. Ed Larner, the commander of the squadron, reported that his B-25C-1 pilots remained a "cocky gang" and promised Kenney that his boys "wouldn't miss."

Their training culminated in a series of full-scale rehearsals at the end of February, a last chance to work out any glitches in the split-second timing on which everything depended. Attacking in pairs, B-25s took violent evasive action at full throttle; one plane strafed the vessel from stem to stern, firing continuously from 1,200 yards, while the other plane strafed the vessel as it came in on its beam and bombed it...

Allied air attacks were so closely timed and heavily concentrated that postmission intelligence reports judged it was impossible to ascertain which airplane or squadron actually sank each ship. B-17s flying at 7,000 feet dropped their bombs first, causing the Japanese vessels to maneuver violently and break up their formation, thereby reducing their concentrated antiaircraft firepower. That left individual ships vulnerable to strafers and masthead bombers. B-25s bombing from 3,000 to 6,000 feet also arrived overhead to drop their load of 500-pound bombs. Crew members reported seeing two burning Japanese ships ram each other while attempting to avoid the bombs. Much of the Japanese antiaircraft fire was focused on the medium-altitude bombers, which left an opening for bombers flying at minimum altitude.

Then thirteen Beaufighters swept in low on the water, strafing the whole length of the convoy. The Japanese destroyers, mistakenly thinking they were torpedo bombers, turned toward the attacking planes to present a smaller target. This left the merchant ships with even less protection. Next Major Larner's B-25C-1s joined the fray, flying at twenty-five to one hundred feet off the water. They literally blazed a path for their masthead bomb attacks with their forward-firing .50-caliber guns.

"We were indicating about 260 mph when we passed over the target," Maj. John Henebry described in a postmission report of a broadside attack against one ship. "I fired in as close as I could as the decks were covered with troops and supplies. Just before I pulled up to clear the mast, my co-pilot released two of our three five-hundred pound bombs, one fell short and the other scored a direct hit into the side of the ship, at water line."

The harrowing flying and devastating outcome of another run were described by 1st Lt. Roy Moore: "During this run I 'cork screwed' the airplane by making undulating changes in altitude not varying from 50 to 100 feet, and at the same time skidded the airplane from one side to the other," he recounted. "These evasive tactics were made to avoid any possible gun fire from the target. When in strafing range, I opened fire with my forward guns. The decks were covered with enemy troops. It is interesting to note that the troops were lined up facing the attacking plane with rifles in hand. However, the forward guns of the airplane outranged their small arms, as I saw hundreds of the troops fall and others go over the side before they could bring their guns to bear."

Last in line were the A-20s. Most A-20 attacks were made in groups of two or three aircraft, which increased their firepower. This massive volley of bullets had the effect of neutralizing deck gunfire, particularly on relatively underarmed transport vessels.

The attack was beautifully timed. Allied planes arrived just after Japanese navy planes protecting the convoy had departed but before their Japanese army aircraft replacements had arrived. Twenty minutes after the attack started, the majority of ships in the convoy were sunk, sinking, or badly damaged.

That afternoon, Allied air power returned to finish the job. At three o'clock, bombers sighted seven Japanese ships: four transports burning and stationary, one destroyer burning and immobile, another abandoned destroyer drifting low in the water, and a third that was picking up survivors. At 3:15 p.m., the attack recommenced. B-17 bombs found their mark simultaneously as B-25s finished their strafing runs. The day's carnage ended twenty-one minutes later.

March 3 was a costly day for the Japanese. Eight transports and three destroyers were at the bottom of the Bismarck Sea. The destroyer Tokitsukaze floated helplessly all night and sank at sundown on March 4. Only the destroyers Shikinami, Asagumo, Yukikaze, and Uranami managed to escape. The Allies, in comparison, lost four aircraft: one B-17 and three P-38s. Thirteen American aircrewmen lost their lives: twelve in the four lost planes, plus a gunner on one of Ed Larner's B-25s when battle damage caused it to collapse upon landing.

On the afternoon of the fourth, the Japanese mounted a retaliatory raid on the Buna area, the site of a base the Allies had captured that January, but their fighters did practically no damage. In his memoir, Kenney smugly wrote that the Japanese reprisal occurred "after the horse had been stolen from the barn." Regarding his Japanese counterpart, he noted that "it was a good thing that the Nip air commander was stupid. Those hundred airplanes would have made our job awfully hard if they had taken part in the big fight over the convoy on March 3rd."

For the next several days, American and Australian airmen returned to the sight of the battle, systematically prowling the seas in search of Japanese survivors. As a coup de grâce, Kenney ordered his aircrew to strafe Japanese lifeboats and rafts. He euphemistically called these missions "mopping up" operations. A March 20, 1943, secret report proudly proclaimed, "The slaughter continued till nightfall. If any survivors were permitted to slip by our strafing aircraft, they were a minimum of 30 miles from land, in water thickly infested by man-eating sharks." Time after time, aircrew reported messages similar to the following: "Sighted, barge consisting of 200 survivors. Have finished attack. No survivors."

Kenney's chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Don Wilson, insisted that the Japanese "set the pace for 'no quarter' procedures" after an incident involving the only Allied bomber lost in the battle. During the initial assault on the morning of March 3, bullets penetrated the wing and radio compartment of the B-17 piloted by Lt. Woodrow Moore. Fire engulfed the plane and it went into a steep dive. Before the plane disintegrated, seven of the nine-man crew bailed out, but Japanese fighters strafed the airmen as they drifted to the sea six thousand feet below.

Aircrew who witnessed this incident were incensed. Capt. James Murphy recalled, " I wanted to vent some of my anger and kill every Japanese son of a bitch I could find." Three P-38 pilots dove their aircraft to engage the Japanese planes that were shooting the B-17 aircrew in their parachutes. All three P-38s were shot down, but not before taking five Japanese fighters with them.

Certainly, some aircrew were motivated by revenge, but most felt that military necessity justified their actions. In fact, Allied aircrews had commenced strafing survivors immediately after the initial attacks—before the loss of Lieutenant Moore's plane. And aircrews who hadn't witnessed Japanese fighters fire on the Americans in their parachutes also participated in the strafing of Japanese survivors. A tactical report by 2d Lt. Charles Howe detailing his March 3 attack in B-25-C1 No. 980 is typical: "Considerable time was spent after the release of all my bombs on strafing survivors and supplies which were strewn as far as the eye could see. On one strafing run against a previously damaged destroyer, I caught the survivors in the act of launching lifeboats. After firing for about seven seconds, I ceased firing to find the lifeboats overturned and the crowd of men attempting to gain the lifeboats definitely out of action."

At the time, strafing Japanese survivors was not controversial. The public's view was consistent with a comment made by one officer who flew on these missions: "The enemy is out to kill you and you are out to kill the enemy. You can't be sporting in war." The public rejoiced after hearing media reports that Japan suffered fifteen thousand casualties at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. The New York Times and other newspapers ran the story on their front pages, and Life magazine featured General Kenney on its cover.

Enemy documents and diaries subsequently recovered from the convoy's wreckage revealed that those initial estimates of Japanese losses were exaggerated. One report, compiled from Japanese sources, placed the losses at 2,890. Another, compiled by the Allied Translator & Interpreter Section, suggested the Japanese lost 6,912. Despite this, Kenney and MacArthur steadfastly refused to revise their claims. Kenney threatened "action against those responsible" for questioning his assessment of the battle. A Fifth Air Force intelligence officer accused Kenney of ordering that reports and evidence suggesting lower Japanese losses be burned. MacArthur said at the time that he thought "the navy was trying to belittle the whole thing because they weren't in on it.…It's against the rules for land-based airplanes to sink ships, especially naval vessels. It's bad enough for them to sink merchant vessels. They ought to be sunk by battleship gunfire or by submarines. But for airplanes to do it, especially if they aren't naval airplanes, it's all wrong."

Regardless of the exact number of soldiers who perished and ships that were sunk, the Battle of the Bismarck Sea was a complete and decisive victory for Allied air power. Only 820 Japanese soldiers, minus their equipment, supplies, and weapons, made it to Lae. Kenney's congratulatory message to his staff summed up the effort well: "Air Power has written some important history in the past three days," he wrote. "Tell the whole gang that I am so proud of them I am about to blow a fuze."

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Maybe in the back of his mind he wondered if he would be courtmartialed when he got home.

Great illustration of the strain of command.

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Some more from the strafers in the Pacific.



Attack on Japanese Subchaser 39



http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/upfiles/20401/01114668B9794699842E47445145E055.jpg



Close up of the B-25 in the photo:



http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/upfiles/20401/76DB590E7EDE447688826A668A2CAF20.jpg





Closer image of Subchaser 39 from above photo.



http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/upfiles/20401/15AC9F8FCCDC4DA2B26AD48D8A11CBFB.jpg



Enhance:



http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/upfiles/20401/18801CB5CDC64C19A9609B45630AC657.jpg



If you look closely at the ship, you can see the Japanese crew manning weapons, ducking and going for cover as the B-25's pass over.  A bomb skipping is in the upper part of the first photo.



The result:



http://ancientlights.org/images/dedication/image008.jpg

IIRC, same 75mm ammo as the SHERMAN TANK

KAPOOYA KAPOOYA !

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Bad park job:

http://i.imgur.com/lk3BNUu.jpg