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Post by G8N1- on Jul 9, 2014 8:51:19 GMT 8
hello just posting my intro to join the board. I'm a big aviation buff and all things WWII related. noticed you guys had a post about the B-32 Dominator. Great plane but it didn't get off the production lines soon enough to be much help. Unfortunately none were saved for museums. all sent to the scrappers like so many other fantastic birds.
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Post by dmether on Jul 9, 2014 10:13:20 GMT 8
Last causality of WWII was an NCO on a B-32 over Tokyo.
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Post by okla on Jul 10, 2014 7:01:18 GMT 8
Hey Dmether....You continue to amaze. Where do you gather all this "nitty gritty" ?
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Post by dmether on Jul 10, 2014 18:55:50 GMT 8
Too much time on my hands Okla. And an interest in the subject. Here is Anthony J. Marchione's grave, the last American casualty in WWII, shot while on a recce flight over Tokyo on-board a B-32/Dominator.
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Post by chadhill on Jul 10, 2014 21:12:44 GMT 8
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Post by dmether on Jul 12, 2014 17:55:47 GMT 8
The B-32 looked a lot like the Navy version of the B-24, I think they had the same nose-mounted gun.
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Post by okla on Jul 12, 2014 21:48:48 GMT 8
Hey Chad....That, indeed, is a tragic story. Nobody wants to be taken out first, last or in the middle, but it is especially sad, when the fighting is about over to be KIA. I read a book, last year, dealing with the final hours of World War 1, entitled "11-11-11" or something akin, that dealt with the final hours leading up to the signing of the 1918 Armistice. It amazed me that offensive operations were carried out, in some Sectors, right up to the time of actual signing of terms in that railway car near Paris. Such senseless, waste of life, when everybody and the dogs in the street were aware that the Kaiser was throwing in the towel at Eleven AM, November 11. Just thought I would add this tidbit to the Forum pot. Cheers.
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Post by EXO on Jul 12, 2014 22:00:15 GMT 8
The B-32 nose turret was a Sperry A-17 (with the same in the rear) and the B-24 was an Emerson A15 (and by the N-series A-31). You may be right as the Navy Version of the B-24 was different - indeed, there seem to be so many variations, almost everything said about such things could have been true in one instance or another. The initial Navy versions of the B-24 were "basically unmodified" and accepted under the name PB4Y-1. The PB4Y-2 (Privateer) had the single tail, and some authorities suggest they had the Consolidated nose turret, not the Sperry. But I can't be sure, as I have seen an advertisement that the ERCO 250SH-2, 2A or 3 Ball Turrets were on the "bow" of the PB4Y-1 & PB4Y-2 (and sharing a design with the Martin 250SH which was fitted to the PBM-3.)
Say, in that alphabet soup, did I mention that the Consair 250CH-3 and the later M.P.C. 250CH-6 tail turrets were also used in some Liberators?
When it comes to B-24's there were a lot of variants in the nose - for example, there was the Consolidated San Diego B-24D with a three gun glazed nose, and an Oklahoma City Mod Centre with a Consolidated AA-6 tail turret in the nose. There was a lot of turret replacement work done in Townsville, Australia with turrets described as Hawaii modifications.
The numbering systems get even more complicated when one confronts the fact that a turret might have a manufacturer's name and a acceptance name (e.g., a turret might be an Emerson Model 128 and still be called an A-30 or maybe an A-31.)
Sperry also supplied the A-13-A ball turret for the Dominator.
As far as aircraft spotting is concerned, the Emerson was like a flat-top cylinder, the Consolidated was a ball with the guns mounted around mid-height and you could easily see the axis on which it was mounted, and the Sperry A-17 was the closest to an actual ball where the guns were mounted low, and the mountings were more internal.
I see that the value of the 38 B-32's which went straight from the factory to the boneyard at Kingman represented approximately 30 million dollars of taxpayers' investment in the Forties, roughly 300 million in today's currency. Though I have never seen a B32, I have seen one of their turrets, strangely. The most remarkable turret I have seen personally is a ball turret with four 50 cals, in storage at the Silver Hill facility of the Smithsonian.
I have also had the good fortune to have flown in a B-17 Ball turret.
Thanks for joltin those memories David.
PS for anyone who might be interested, somewhere I have some ammo feed mechanism motors.
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Post by chadhill on Jul 13, 2014 0:45:49 GMT 8
Wow, EXO, thanks for sharing all the interesting turret information. Okla, I think I browsed through that same book not long ago and had the same thoughts as you.
Sergeant Marchione was only 19, a month shy of his 20th birthday...
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Post by okla on Jul 13, 2014 3:50:57 GMT 8
Hey EXO....There is a fellow in my church who displays a POW decal on the rear window of his SUV. He is of very small stature, thus, I had the nagging suspicion that he might have been a Ball Turret gunner prior to becoming a reluctant resident of a Stalag. I wasn't acquainted with him, so I was very hesitant to query him about his POW experiences,etc. Finally after several weeks, curiosity prevailed and I asked him if he might have been an Army Air Corp Vet. He replied in the affirmative. Of course, my next question was.."were you a Belly Gunner". The answer was "yeah, how did you know" I reluctantly answered.."due to you stature". I was afraid he might have been offended, but he, readily replied, "that's what most people say". It is true, from my visiting with WW 2 Army Air Corp men that I served with, that the smaller guys in Gunnery School were doomed to serve in the Ball Turret. What a helpless feeling that must have been. I always am reminded of the guy who was stuck in one of those positions and his aircraft had to make a wheels up, emergency landing. I am told that they came in on the grass portion of their English station. A lot of good that did, but I guess it was the best they could do for their trapped comrade. Just sayin'.
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