I'm fascinated by the many different tyes of aircraft gun-turrets used during the war. I'm in the process of buying "BRITISH AIRCRAFT ARMAMENT" by Clarke (2 volumes for £50 which is a bargain because Volume 1 on Gun Turrets is extremely scarce). The book is a must because there are no other comprehensive guides to the one-off experiments carried out by Boulton and FN. However, there are a few good websites around: http://www.navylib.com/Turrets!!!.htm http://www.eugeneleeslover.com/USNAVY/CHAPTER-23-B.html http://liberatorcrew.com/AircraftGunnery.htm
http://liberatorcrew.com/Manuals/AGM.htm The actual manual is 337 pages long, and packed full of virtually everything a gunner would need to know.
So you are trying to tell me that they didn't just put a bloke in a plane, call him a gunner and he proceeded to shoot down the enemy!eep:
Very interesting find on the web! I have the Lancaster servicing manual which has a section on the armament, also the B29 crew manual which has a section for gunners. But Gunners and their equipment are a forgotten bred on the internet
Shhh, don't tell anyone but I don't think the handbook was actually given to the gunners - it was actually dropped on the Germans as propaganda to scare them into believing that the Allied gunners were highly trained sharp-shooters The original site is fantastic (I linked it in the first post). I've got a pdf of the handbook but it's 50Mb. If you're interested PM me.
FN.21A Turret The FN21A underside turret was intended to be fitted to the Avro Manchester. The idea sounded quite good on paper but turned out to be a complete disaster in practice. The problems and pictures attached come from Avro Manchester: The Legend behind the Lancaster by Kirby (excellent book, with complete developmental and operational history, and a brief history of every Manchester built).
