Air Force·Doctrinal shift·In Memoriam
B-25 Strafer Nose Gunner
Pappy Gunn's gunships
Served: 1942–1945
Pacific-theater B-25C/D and factory B-25J Mitchells modified with up to eight fixed .50s in a hard nose plus four cheek-pod .50s and a forward-locked top turret — a 14-gun strafing battery that mauled Japanese coastal shipping at masthead height.
The Story
Lt Col Paul "Pappy" Gunn and North American field rep Jack Fox built the first strafer noses at the 4th Air Depot in Townsville, New Guinea. Total throw weight: about 215 pounds of lead per second.
Epitaph
“215 pounds of lead per second. Then nothing flew that low again.”
Sources
- HistoryNet — B-25historynet.com
- Wikipedia — North American B-25en.wikipedia.org