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Re: Lockheed Ventura four gun turret
Lend-Lease doesn't seem to have been quite that rigid. The aircraft had to be supplied to USAAF (or USN) standards, but that didn't prevent later modifications once delivered. In some, if unusual, cases, aircraft were built specifically to British standards as with the Corsairs and their clipped wingtips, or the Liberators modified in the US before delivery to the UK. Other normal changes once arrived would include radios, seat belts etc. Perhaps it was required that aircraft, if returned the US, would have to be restored to their original standard?
Regarding Venturas, those operating with 2 Group from the UK would have been to original British orders, so there could be no problem with any changes in armament. The Mk.Vs will have been Lend-Lease and delivered with US armament, but from the photos of SAAF aircraft in the Mediterranean clearly they were rearmed more to the taste of their operators.
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