Ventral gun on the A-20G

[Dave Williams]

Seeing the discussion on building the new HKM kit regarding the positioning of the manually operated ventral gun got me wondering how much this was actually used in real life.  AFAIK, there was only the one gunner in the rear section of the aircraft, so to use the ventral gun, the gunner would have to leave his nice power operated turret with twin .50s and kneel down, open the ventral hatch, and swing the ventral gun into position.  Somehow I can’t see that happening too often, especially as now the upper hemisphere above the aircraft is unguarded.  Granted, low level tactics in the SWPA likely meant that the gun was rarely used (and may not even have been carried), but was the ventral gun used much in Europe, which typically did medium altitude bombing?  Inquiring minds want to know.

[Finn]

Dave check here:

 

https://www.416th.com/TypicalMission_Formation.html

 

it says the A-20 had 2 gunners on missions, at least the glass nosed ones did.

 

Jari

[Dave Williams]

Hmm, I had never heard there were two guys back there.  There hardly seems room, plus there is no obvious seat for the ventral gunner.

[Finn]

Check here:

 

https://www.416th.com/missions/combat_missions.html

 

select one of the missions and you'll get crew names, 4 for the glass nose and 3 for the G. 

 

 

Jari