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American Combat Planes of the 20th Century is an incredible reference for anyone who is interested in any American Combat Plane History. There are 758 pages and 1700 b/w photos in this substantial labor of love by Ray Wagner, who has been passionately researching and writing about aircraft for over 50 years. Whether you are already familiar with his past works, or just discovering this accomplished author for the first time... This is the book that you've been waiting for!

If you'd like to see the book's Table of Contents ... Click here. You can also browse the entire Index Section to get an idea of the extensive amount of information that is covered within this book.

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North American B-25

Page 3

The 11th Bomb Squadron remained the only Fourteenth Air Force B-25 unit until the Chinese-American Composite Wing’s B-25 group arrived in November 1943. The 341st Group continued operations from India, joined by the 12th in March 1944. In the Aleutians, both medium bomber squadrons, (73rd and 77th), replaced B-26s with B-25s that usually added radar search gear to penetrate the northern fogs.

NORTH AMERICAN B-25G-10

Improving the B-25’s Firepower
The Fifth Air Force added a new modification to the Mitchell type when they modified B-25s for strafing. The bombardier’s position and the lower turret were removed, and two pairs of guns were added to the nose, and another pair attached in blisters on each side. These eight forward-firing .50s were supplemented by the two in the upper turret. A crew of three operated this strafer, and sixty small fragmentation bombs, plus six 100-pound demolition bombs, could be carried. The four fixed guns in side packages were also added back in the U.S. to new B-25D-30 models.

The first B-25C strafer was tested in December 1942, and 175 B-25C and Ds were so converted for low-level strafing at the Townsville, Australia, depot by September 1943. Deadly work was done by these Mitchells against shipping in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, and against Japanese airfields in the Rabaul area. NORTH AMERICAN B-25H-5

A remarkable Mitchell modification was to fit a standard 75-mm M-4 cannon to the last B-25C-l, which became the XB-25G tested on October 22, 1942. Five B-25C-15s were completed as B-25G-ls, the first flown March 16, 1943, and the last 400 B-25C-25s were completed as B-25G-1/-10s by August 1943.

The 75-mm gun was mounted in the lower left nose and hand-loaded with 21 rounds from the loading tray behind the pilot. The shortened solid nose had two fixed .50-caliber nose guns with 400 rounds each, and armor 3/8-inch thick covered the front and left side of the pilot’s cockpit. The usual two-gun top turret and its armor bulkhead was retained, but the two-gun lower turret on the first 221 Gs was omitted on later ships.

The cannon was accurate if the aircraft was held steady, but only about four shells could be fired in a single run. Although the Fifth Air Force often used them against shipping and ground targets, the cannons were taken out of 82 B-25Gs and replaced by two .50-caliber guns in the cannon tunnel, two more in the nose, and a pair of .30s in the tail. Beginning in November 1943, these modifications were made in the Townsville depot.

Heavier armament was introduced on the B-25H-1, which had a 75-mm T13E-1 in the nose along with four fixed .50-caliber guns, and two more in blisters on the right side of the fuselage. The two-gun power turret was moved forward to just behind the pilot, improving its field of fire. The unpopular retractable belly turret was replaced in the waist by a flexible gun firing out of a window on each side, and a tail gunner was seated in a power-operated Bell two-gun turret with an 84-degree vertical and 76-degree horizontal swing. The load included 3,200 pounds of bombs, with provisions on late models for eight 5-inch rockets under the wings. NORTH AMERICAN B-25J-5

A thousand B-25Hs (NA-98) had been ordered on August 21, 1942, and the first B-25H-1 flew July 31, 1943. Twelve .50-caliber guns were carried on the 300 B-25H-ls, but the remaining blocks, beginning in December with the B-25H-5, carried 14, with twin package guns on both sides of the nose. Armor weight was 869 pounds.

One B-25H-5, 34408, was flown as the NA-98X with 2,000-hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800-51 engines on March 31, 1944, but crashed on April 24. Production of the five-place B-25H ended in July 1944, when North American’s Inglewood factory changed entirely to P-51 fighter production. NORTH AMERICAN B-25J-22

The most widely used Mitchell was the B-25J (NA-108) that followed the B-25D at the Kansas City factory. A six-place model with the B-25D’s transparent bombardier’s nose enclosure, the B-25J had no cannon, but instead had a flexible gun in the nose, with a fixed gun on the right side of the nose. The rest of the 12 .50-caliber guns were the same as those on the B-25H-5, with four fixed in packages and six for the three gunners. NORTH AMERICAN PBJ-1D (B-25D-30)

The first B-25J-1 flew December 14, 1943, and 4,318 B-25Js were accepted from the Kansas factory. Later production blocks to varied in detail and gradually increased in normal weight from 26,783 pounds on the B-25J-1 to 27,738 pounds on the B-25J-30 in 1945. Power plants were the R-2600-13 or the similar R-2600-29 Cyclone. Another .50-caliber fixed gun was added below the fixed gun in the right-hand side of the nose of the B-25J-20. When in a radar training configuration, these aircraft were designated AT-24D, and later TB-25J.

An attack modification replaced the bombardier’s compartment with eight .50-caliber fixed guns and 400 rpg in a solid nose. Appearing in August 1944, the B-25J-22 had twelve .50-caliber fixed guns, as well as the six flexible guns, with a total of 7,300 rounds of ammuni tion. This was the most heavily armed aircraft of its size in service. There were 510 Mitchells completed in this configuration, designated B-25J-22, -27, -32, and -37, according to their production block.

NORTH AMERICAN PBJ-1H (B-25H-5 for Marines)

All B-25Js had up to 944 pounds of 3/8-inch armor for crew members, and the bomb bay normally accommodated two l,600, three 1,000, or six 500-pound bombs. Other racks could be fitted to hold a 2,000-pound bomb or eight 500-pound bombs inside, or a Mark 13 torpedo externally. Eight 5-inch rockets could be added under the wings.

By the end of 1944, the Air Force had 11 B-25 groups overseas, (plus the 77th Bomb Squadron on Shemya) with each medium bomber group normally having 64 aircraft among four squadrons. Total inventory, including those in reserve and at training stations, reached a peak of 2,656 in July 1944. Production ended in August 1945 with 9,816 Mitchells accepted, not including 72 B-25J-35s in flyable condition at the war’s end, but not accepted contractually. Costs had dropped from $180,031 in 1941 to $116,752 per plane in 1945.

Marine Corps medium bomber squadrons were also activated to use the Mitchell, beginning with VMB-413, whose first combat mission was against Rabaul on March 15, 1944. Six more squadrons, each with 15 aircraft and 30 crews, served in the Pacific war, and five more squadrons were commissioned too late for combat.

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