Changes at Boeing

I never asked Blumer how he dispatched the Spitfire but he knew how to use his airplane and I'm sure it wasn't a bank and yank encounter. His five kills at Clastres were achieved by speed and climb ability.

 

Four cal. 50's and two 20mm cannons all grouped in a 3 1/2 foot diameter space. Few survived getting hit with this closely grouped mass of projectiles. Very effective at shooting up trains and armored columns.

 

The Bell P-39, Curtiss P-40, P-47, P-51 were all flush riveted as were the B-25, B-26, and B-29 . The Zero's success came from its good aero design and extreme light weight. I was struck by the beauty of the Zero when I saw it for the first time and was also amazed at how delicate it was. You could depress the fuselage skins with your thumb. I didn't know much about aircraft materials then but now when I think back about it, the skin gage couldn't have been more than .032 and everything else about it was minimal. Not much in the cockpit. We didn't know it then but the Japanese had developed light weight aluminum alloys that were used in the spar chords and terminal fittings, similar and maybe the same as 7075 and 7078. It had about the same engine as an R1830 in weight and power and must have been great fun to fly.

 

I forgot that the B-24 was also flush riveted

 

This is triggering some memories re Blumer that I haven't thought about in years. He loved strafing transport columns because of the effective firepower he had and he told me of a "little incident", in his words, where he made a big mistake one day when he strafed a column on a road between two ridges. The ridges were lined with flak guns and he was immediately in trouble, as he put it. The number 2 engine exploded and peeled up over the wing. Blumer pulled into a steep climb to get enough altitude to bail out, rolling at the same time. He got out and somehow missed the tail, or what was left of it, and landed in the woods. He said that he crawled for two days getting through the German lines and eventually reaching a British unit. They offered him a canteen cup of brandy that he drained in one gulp...his words. He went through five P-38's when he was in Europe, all either damaged from airplane debris or strafing debris. His return from Clastres drew sad head shaking from his crew chief when he pulled into the hardstand with both engines blowing white smoke and oil. He lived in a modest little house where uncharacteristically he had a fabulous collection of music boxes and juke boxes. He drove a restored 1913 Cadillac some times . He pulled out an old cigar box that was crammed with medals from the U.S., France, and Belgium, all high level. He had reports, photos, and articles about his service awards. His comment, " If I pawned all those medal things , they wouldn't be enough to buy me a cup of coffee." He didn't tell war stories, he was one.

 

Thanks, Tay. I made a typo in my statement that it had (2) 20mm's. I have seen the impact mayhem when (6) .50'***** at the point of convergence and it is awesome. I can't imagine what the P-38's fire did. I remember that Blumer mentioned flying through the debris of fighters that he dispatched. That would be at pretty close range. His description of his arrival at the Clastres fight was that type of firing. He was at the end of a long high power dive to reach the fight and when he got there and his peripheral vision picked up a FW190 coming from his left and he instinctively fired and destroyed it. He then pulled into a big loop going through the melee and shot another one down on the way up. He then decided to loop in and out of the fight, shooting down three more. Crazy story. Witnesses on the ground said that the sky was full of flaming airplanes. Over 75 airplanes going at it. One entire Geschwader (spl) and part of another wiped out ( 35 airplanes) with a loss of 7 P-38's, if I remember. A Luftwaffe survivor said that it was obvious that they were being handled by a group of experts. Digging this up from my ol' head so I may have some numbers wrong. Larry had a Student Prince at Thun Field as well as his P-38 and I flew with him a few times in his biplane. That's crazy, too. A WW2 P-38 Ace flying around in a 220hp antique. His P-38 was fixed up for Chuck Lyford to fly at Abottsford and when it was at Paine Field, Larry decided to fly it. After getting guided to the active, he took off to the north over the Sound and promptly rolled it. Larry passed at age 80 in Springfield, Oregon.

 

I remembered another of Blumer's strafing incidents when he returned from shooting up a train. Target fascination took over and he got a bit too low on his run and came back with 300 ft. of high tension wire and part of a pole trailing behind the airplane.

 

You're probably thinking of the DH Hornet. Didn't appear to be any better than the Mossy.