World War II Database

1.  Bill says:
20 Apr 2015 07:47:59 AM

EAT LEAD! For enemy pilots the tail position was just as deadly as the other positions. Gunners were trained to fire their weapons in short bursts, each fifty caliber machine gun carried 600 rounds per gun, that's 1,200 rounds sounds like a lot, but in the heat of battle you got to make every round count. Ammo was fed via a long feed chute as far back to the waist gunners positions. Weapons were sighted using either the K-7 or K-13 compensating gun sight. B-24J production 6,678 were built, the last production version B-24M 2,593 built. On an operational mission, Sgt. Sobanjo would be protected from the freezing cold at 30,000 feet wearing electrical heated flying suit, gloves, boots, flak vest helmet, goggles and oxygen mask. Near the end of the war, many brand new B-24s were flown from factories to storage facilities, never serving in operational squadrons, most were sold as war surplus or scrapped. The B-24 served in the post war era and late phased out in the 1950s the last B-24 served with the US Coast Guard until 1959.