Re: New Video of Rear Guns

jgunning Wrote:
=======================================================
> Greg,
>
> Thanks for the video! I had never seen the guns in
> the operating position on a Dauntless and never
> realized they had a pair of doors aft of the
> cockpit that opened to let them come up. The pair
> of guns on this aircraft are definitely .30 cals.
> I base this on the overall size of the guns and
> the rounds going into the feed chute. The .50 cal
> Browning gun is huge (overall length 65 inches)
> and the BMG round is 5.45 inches long and the case
> .80 inches in diameter. The rounds in the vid
> don't look anywhere near that big.
>
> Some of the early tanks I trained on still had a
> .30 cal model 1919 Browning coaxial gun in the
> turret. So, I've fired those on quite a few
> occasions as well.

On the subject of .30 cal Brownings mounted on aircraft, didn't
the TBM/TBF have fixed .30s on the wings? The rear gunner had a
single .50 in a turret.

Back to the Dauntless, it is a fact that more than one pilot got
credit for kills against Japanese fighters with the fixed Brownings
and were quickly switched to fighter pilot status. The Navy wasn't
going to waste their talents in dive bomber.