December 7, 1941

Gary/IA

Gary/IA

Senior Member
Just took this picture from my front drive. It might bring back memories to some who were involved from 12/7/41 onward.

B17Bomber2.jpg
 
I have often thought about the situation my parents were in on this day in 1941. My dad, a young college student, married a little over a year, and with a 3-week old baby (me), and wife not doing all that well after childbirth.

And his car -- '29 Model A Tudor!
 
Thirty years ago I worked with a fellow who worked for General Electric in the late thirties. One project was design and troubleshooting on the "mechanized" (relays and vacuum tubes) system that linked some of the 50 caliber machine guns on board the B-29.

The guns were controlled so that one gunner on each side, top or bottom of the plane could control all the mechanized guns that could fire at an attacker in his field of view to maximize fire power.

The system allowed individual firing of each gun (sorry Sergeant Lawyer 1967 ... WEAPON. "A weapon is for fighting and a gun is for fun") or groups of guns to follow the attacking planes. As soon as the attacking plane went out of sight that gunner would release the "set trigger" and say "clear" in the intercom and the next gunner would grab the "set trigger" and have control of all the guns that could fire on the attacker as he went out of sight from the first gunner.

George Bramall said that more than once they shot the wings, tails and props off of the mock-ups during R&D and testing phases.

I am not sure if this system ever made it into production or not.
 
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1932 Ford weathering the storm on December 7, 1941.

Tom Endy
 

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(sorry Sergeant Lawyer 1967 ... WEAPON. "A weapon is for fighting and a gun is for fun")

You must have had the same sergeant I had! :D:p

Only heard a brief mention of Pearl Harbor on the news today.
 
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I can just imagine what would happen if the RTO yelled on the "*****-25" (PRC-25): "Bring all your M-60 "machine weapons" over to the north perimeter ASAP

Or "did you see Puff the Magic Dragon firing his Gatling Weapons last night over by the "Golf Course" near the Greenline?" ... NO but everybody within several miles heard noise ... that is for sure!

:rolleyes:
 
Local paper, the hartford Courant , been around since the amer revolution, NO mention that I saw. Sad. JMO
Paul in CT
 
P.S. said:
"The greatest generation" is no understatement.

For those of you in Northern California, don't forget the historic Mt. Diablo beacon will be lit tonight as it is every year on this day. It can be seen for nearly a hundred miles.
Click to expand...
P.S,
I wound up there once, WILD PLACE!! You can see the whole Delta Area and a lot of San Francisco Bay!! With all the transmitters up there, my radio would keep changing stations by itself!! Bill W.
 
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