[George Hopp]

As drgondog said in his note, I think it was up to the individual bomber crews as to whether or not they carried weapons. I remember talking about this to a wartime Bomber Command pilot who said he ordered his crew not to carry weapons on the theory that if someone carried a gun, on getting shot down, he might just want to use it, and get himself killed.

Regarding the accuracy of these things, an infantry friend noted that pretty well the only way to hit the enemy with your pistol was to throw it at him. He said that that was why on ops he always carried a carbine, or something similar.