Dark Skies - The First American Gunship - Script
(Sam Final Edit) Days after the Japanese conducted a surprise
attack against US forces in Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt held an urgent
meeting with Joint Chiefs of Staff to discuss American military response to their enemy
in the Pacific. The President, visibly preoccupied about American
morale after the treacherous Japanese carrier airstrike, told his senior officers that mainland
Japan had to be bombed as soon as possible. This, he thought, would boost the country's
morale, increase voluntary enlistments and fortify war bonds. The result of his order was the Doolittle
Raid, under the command of renowned aviator and engineer, James H. Doolittle, whom in
his autobiography later wrote (QUOTE): "An attack on the Japanese homeland would
cause confusion in the minds of the Japanese people and sow doubt about the reliability
of their leaders... Americans badly needed a morale boost." The operation took place on April 18, 1942,
and it was a resounding success thanks to the newly converted medium bomber, the B-25
Mitchell. The squadron of B-25s bombed Tokyo and Honshu,
claiming over 60 lives and injuring 500 hundred people. Although damage was relatively minimal, it
achieved the desired effects. US morale drastically increased because it
proved American aircraft could take the fight to the heart of the enemy no matter where
they stood. In contrast, the Japanese fighting s pirit
took a heavy blow, for they realized that their archipelago was not as impenetrable
as they thought it was. The mission and the B-25's Doolittle performance
became so famous that it easily overshadowed the B-25's next combat role. Equipped with a powerful 75 mm M4 tank gun,
a dozen high caliber Machine Guns, rockets, and a 3,000-pound bomb load capacity, the
B-25 Model G was a heavy-hitting gunship to be reckoned with. The Dawn of Bombers
Leading up to World War 2, the Luftwaffe and the United States Air Corps both tried installing
75-millimeter tank guns in aircraft with an eye on pulverizing ground objects in close
support of combat troops. The German Hs-129B-3 and the Ju-88P-1 were
equipped with long-barreled anti-tank guns whose most important goal was to stop the
heavily armored and deathly Soviet T-34 tanks. For their part, the US Air Corps had the B-25G
Mitchell Gunship. Created to sink Japanese ships and interrupt
the Empire's supply line, the gunship would go through several armament modifications
that made it the most popular Pacific War bomber. From a medium and high altitude bomber to
a low altitude aircraft capable of skip bombing and strafing, the B25 steadily dominated the
skies that once belonged to Japanese Zeros and Mitsubishis. By the time the war against the Axis reached
an end, the B25 gunship was the most heavily armed airplane of the US, with defensive armament
of up to fourteen .50 cal machine guns. Better Than The Mustang After observing the four-year-long Spanish
Civil War, US officers from the Air Corps concluded that low altitude bombing was no
longer sufficient. Anti-aircraft batteries' fire got deadlier
with every passing day, making low altitude bombing extremely dangerous for crews. Thus, the military considered high altitude
bombing the next logical step for strategic raids. Aircraft needed to climb higher to stay safe
from AA-guns and carry more bomb loads to deal with the maximum damage during a single
raid. Additional research from the Air Corps suggested
that, when it came to maritime warfare, the best option available to effectively sink
enemy vessels was by hitting them with the heavy payload of a bomber. The reports concluded that, when compared
to the damage done by the 16-inch shell of a ship cannon, a 2000-pound bomb had (QUOTE):
"greater potential destructive effect against battleships than any other known weapon." These reports, and the way combat developed
in the Pacific Theatre, shaped the future American B25 Mitchell Gunship. In March 1939, the Air Corps issued a specification
for a medium bomber that could carry a payload of 2,400 lbs over 1,200 miles at approximately
300 miles per hour. North American Aviation used one of its previous
failed designs, a twin-engine airplane dubbed XB21, as the foundation for their new prototype
design. They designated it NA-40. Unfortunately, one month later, the prototype
crashed during testing and was destroyed. The new design had some modifications that
made it larger to accommodate a 3,000-pound bomb load and seat the pilot and co-pilot
side by side. With the increased bomb load capacity and
overall weight, this new prototype, dubbed NA62, transitioned from a light to a medium
bomber. And ironically, that was precisely what the
Army was looking for in August 1939. Straight off from the drawing board, the Army
Air Corps ordered 184 NA62s and put them into production under the name B25 Mitchell. During production, North American Aviation
incorporated various modifications to the airplane. The first one was flattening the outer wing
panels to produce a slight angle outboard the engine nacelles to prevent stability problems. The result was the peculiar gull-wing configuration
that would make the B25 easily recognizable. Other tweaks included the size increase of
the tail fins, including various .30 cal MGs, additional armor, and self-sealing fuel tanks. When interviewed by Author Stephan Wilkinson,
veteran pilot Jim Harley said that the B25 was (QUOTE): "rock-stable…painfully easy
on takeoff…and one of the most stable platforms in the landing configuration of any airplane
I've ever flown, other than maybe the Mustang." "Single-engine control speed was probably
the biggest thing to be concerned about. It was around 145 mph, and you lifted off
at 90 to 100. Get it off the ground, get the gear coming
up, level the airplane over the runway and let it accelerate to 145. Then you can go right into the climb. Takes 20, 30 seconds. It accelerates really fast." Combat History The B25B variant used for the Doolittle Raid
over Tokyo in 1942 was equipped with a nose-mounted.30-caliber machine gun, two turrets powered with twin
.50 cal MGs, and the full 3,000-pound bomb load capacity. Although the raid was a success, it proved
that the B25B still needed some modifications for long-range missions and low-level combat. Some of the aircraft crashed or got stranded
in China and Russia because they ran out of fuel. As a result, the B25C incorporated more fuel
tanks and more .50 cal machine guns, reaching a total of six guns. One of them, placed in the nose, was fully
controllable by the pilot. This became the first hint of the strafing
role that the B25 would develop for the rest of the Pacific Theatre. Additionally, engineers added external bomb
racks under each wing to increase firepower. The bomb-bay could now carry a 2,000-pound
torpedo for taking down enemy vessels. The B25C version was shipped to Great Britain,
Russia, China, and Canada. The British RAF and the Canadian Air Force
used B25Cs to attack supply lines and oil depots controlled by the Wehrmacht in East
Flanders and other secondary objectives scattered in the French-German border. The Dutch also received the same B25C variant
and participated in the East Indies campaigns, raining fire upon the Japanese advance through
Asia's jungles. The USSR used different variants employed
by the Soviet Air Force from the early days of the siege of Stalingrad up to the end of
the war. In the European theatre, all countries used
it as just another strategic bomber, but in the Pacific, it shone as a fast and brutal
strafing bomber. The Commerce Destroyer Although the B-25 was initially intended to
be a medium bomber, delivering bomb loads more rapidly from moderate altitudes than
the high-altitude heavyweight B-17s, it performed best in the Pacific as a low-level attack
bomber and strafer. In October 1942, under a US requirement for
a ground attack and strafing platform, North American came up with the B25G, the first
American Gunship. Author Brian J. Smith in his work, The Dynamics
of B25 Innovation, wrote that North American Company made history when they (QUOTE): "Mounted the largest forward-firing cannon
ever used in a US bomber. This was a 75mm M-4 cannon, basically a tank
gun with an 18-pound projectile." But that was not all. Months later, in 1943, the ultimate pack a
punch aircraft entered production. The B25H and B25J were equipped with up to
14 .50 caliber machine guns. This moving castle was impregnable. It could not be flanked from any side. North, South, East, and West were entirely
covered by machine guns that rained hell everywhere they went. Pilots began to call the B25 gunship the "commerce
destroyers." The manufacturer was undoubtedly interested
in improving the airplane. However, General George Kenney of the Army
Air Forces and Captain Paul Irvin Pappy Gunn had a significant influence in the modifications
done to the bomber throughout the war. General Douglas MacArthur once said of Kenney
(QUOTE): "Of all the commanders of our major Air Forces
engaged in World War II, none surpassed General Kenney in those three great essentials of
successful combat leadership: aggressive vision, mastery over air strategy and tactics, and
the ability to exact the maximum in fighting qualities from both men and equipment." Both Kenney and Captain Pappy Gunn insisted
on customizing the B25s with up to 18 MGs. They also pushed forward the role of skip
bombing for the aircraft, which became crucial for the Pacific. Stephan Wilkinson best described the role
(QUOTE): "Often skip bombing meant literally throwing a bomb against a hull, and the B-25's
speed made it particularly effective at this. Skip bombing had first been tried with B-17s,
but they weren't fast enough to get the job done." Strafing Japanese airfields was the main objective
of the B-25s in the Pacific. With more than a dozen MGs and a powerful
tank cannon, the aircraft could deal heavy damage in one run when above an enemy airfield. Destroying Japanese airplanes on the ground
proved so tremendously effective that, for a brief time, Allied forces tried doing the
same in Europe with experimental jet ammunition. This motivated German airplanes to wreak havoc
on the ground. When the war ended, the B25 served in the
air forces of over 15 countries. The US Navy, Marines, and the future USAF
experimented with other configurations, but those never saw combat in great numbers as
in World War 2. The B25 Mitchell gunship became the foundational
rock of the legendary Lockheed AC130 of the USAF that would first see action during the
Vietnam War.
