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Allied and Soviet Air Forces Please use this forum to discuss the Air Forces of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.

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Old 13th March 2005, 18:37
Nonny
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Gunless B29's increased bomb load

This article
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/...20050313x1.htm
states that removing all except the B29s tail guns enabled the bomb load to be increased by 65%.

Is this correct?
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Old 13th March 2005, 23:33
JoeB JoeB is offline
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JoeB
Re: Gunless B29's increased bomb load

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nonny
This article
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/...20050313x1.htm
states that removing all except the B29s tail guns enabled the bomb load to be increased by 65%.

Is this correct?
Werrell gives the following in "Blankets of Fire":
Average bomb load in February 1945 (high altitude tactics, but a bit lower than the early raids and a little higher gross weights): 6,700#

Bombloads for the first fire raid on Tokyo: varied from almost 14,000# for the most experienced wing (73rd) from Saipan, to as little as 9,700# for the least experienced (elements of 314th) from Guam, 120nm greater round trip.

The weight of ammo and gunners left behind was around 2,700#. According to his footnote it's not clear which and to what extent guns per se were actually removed for this raid, but some groups carried no ammo at all, even for tail guns.

Anyway depending on comparing what to what, the increase could have been more than 65%, but the lower altitude flight profile was apparantly also more efficient in carrying a larger load, not just defensive armament weight reduction.

Joe
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