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Difference between revisions of "Common Questions and Answers"
Common Questions and Answers (view source)
Revision as of 05:24, 13 March 2022
, 05:24, 13 March 2022→Did the Doolittle Raiders replace the tail guns in their B-25s with broomsticks?: Add Footnotes & References
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=== Did the Doolittle Raiders replace the tail guns in their B-25s with broomsticks? === | === Did the Doolittle Raiders replace the tail guns in their B-25s with broomsticks? === | ||
Not exactly. Some of the B-25Bs used on the raid did have twin broomsticks placed in the rear of the airplane as a ruse. However, stock B-25Bs did not have tail guns installed, so the broomsticks did not replace existing guns, but added them where there had not been any before. | Not exactly. Some of the B-25Bs used on the raid did have twin broomsticks placed in the rear of the airplane as a ruse.{{efn|The use of fake wooden guns for deception have a long history in war. So called “Quaker guns” were used as early as the American Revolutionary War.}} However, stock B-25Bs did not have tail guns installed, so the broomsticks did not replace existing guns, but added them where there had not been any before.{{efn|An earlier variant, the B-25A, did have a single tail gun.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lawson |first1=Ted W. |editor1-last=Considine |editor1-first=Robert |title=Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo |date=1944 |publisher=Blue Ribbon Books |location=Garden City, New York |page=8 |url=http://archive.org/details/thirtysecondsove00laws}}</ref>}} | ||
This is an important distinction because in the 2001 movie Pearl Harbor it is suggested that the guns were replaced to lighten the weight of the airplanes. In addition, it is presented as a decision that was made on the spur of the moment, when it fact it was actually made at Eglin Air Force Base – long before the B-25s were ever aboard the USS Hornet. To further confuse matters, the movie depicts the guns being replaced as the waist guns, not those in the tail. | This is an important distinction because in the 2001 movie Pearl Harbor it is suggested that the guns were replaced to lighten the weight of the airplanes. In addition, it is presented as a decision that was made on the spur of the moment, when it fact it was actually made at Eglin Air Force Base – long before the B-25s were ever aboard the USS Hornet. To further confuse matters, the movie depicts the guns being replaced as the waist guns, not those in the tail.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Doolittle |first1=James H. |last2=Glines |first2=Carroll V. |title=I Could Never Be So Lucky Again |date=1995 |publisher=Schiffer Publishing |location=Atglen, Pennsylvania |page=246 |url=http://archive.org/details/icouldneverbesol0000dool |access-date=13 March 2022}}</ref> | ||
=== Did the phrase “the whole nine yards” really come from the length of machine gun belts in World War II? === | === Did the phrase “the whole nine yards” really come from the length of machine gun belts in World War II? === | ||