Why does He 177 have two nose gun positions?

[Johnny .45]

Hey, I was curious whether anyone had a notion as to why Heinkel bothered to add the MG 81 machine gun firing through the canopy glazing on the He 177, when there was already a perfectly good MG 151 gun in the chin? Seems like the arcs of fire of the chin gun and the top turret would protect the entire area, unless the chin gun is very limited in it's upward angle.
Also, I'm curious as to who controlled what guns. Is the chin gun controlled remotely by the bomb aimer, or by the man in the upper sighting station? Neither makes much sense, as the upper sight station is very limited in it's view forward and downwards, and if the bomb aimer controls the chin gun, who fires the manually-aimed MG 81? Very mysterious, two guns covering the forward arc, but only one man to aim them.

[Juha]

Hello Johnny
It looks like that the MG 151/20 on the gondola nose was handheld so the canopy MG 81 was needed for upper hemisphere frontal defence.

Juha

PS I found the manual, yes the MG 151/20 had the movement of +7 - -55deg and 15 deg Left and Right

[Johnny .45]

Thank you Juha; that was very educational. For some reason, I've had it in my mind that the gondola gun was remotely controlled. Not sure where I got that idea; probably something I read on line and took too literally. Anyway, now that I look at the cutaway drawing I have in my book here, I notice that the MG 151/20 is equipped with a gunsight and bullet-proof glass, which should have made it clear that it was manually operated!
By any chance does your manual mention which crew operated which guns? Was the bomb-aimer responsible for both upper and lower guns? Or was the navigator who fired the MG 81Z (or MG 131) in the rear of the gondola supposed to man both the front and rear gondola guns? That sounds like the more logical thing somehow.

[Juha]

Hello Johnny
that armourer's manual, so a quick look didn't reveal who was supposed to use the cannon.

Juha

[Brian Bines]

The crew of a He177 was Pilot, Observer ( navigator and bomb aimer), Radio/op. Air Mechanic, mid-upper gunner and tail gunner. As far as I know the Rad/op. also controlled the remote upper turret, the Obs. the MG81 in the upper front canopy, and the Air.Mech the foward firing MG151 in the lower gondala or the rearward MG131 also in the lower gondala. Perhaps someone could confirm or amend if this is not correct,

Regards

Brian Bines