History of the He-280 - The Plane That Competed Against The Me 262 And Lost: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jMiqfK2FldPDc6s.html

I worked for an old guy in the '70s that was a B-17 pilot flying out of England for a goodly part of the war. He mentioned to me one time about the term "flying porcupines". I know this term has been applied elsewhere but he was talking about B-17's that the crews added weapons to. Mostly additional .50 cal's but he said they would strap anything in there they could get the plane off the ground with. They commonly carried more ammunition and extra barrels than the regular load out too. I wish I had paid more attention. That generation is all but gone and I'm very thankful he took enough interest in me to tell me some of his stories, since I can no longer ask him.

My father’s uncle was a gunner on a YB-40. When the program ended he was assigned as a waist gunner with the 407th Bomb Squadron. Thanks for the video!

I read an interview of a ME 109 pilot. He said he never returned to base without a few holes in his plane. So all that shooting from the B 17s did hit something

Good show. Thank you. My stepfather was a pilot of a B-17. He was 23 years old on the 23rd mission. His aircraft was hit with flack over Austria and it caught on fire and exploded. He was the only one who made it. He was a pow. He’s gone now. RIP to all who dared to go up and didn’t make it back.

In the early part of the war, my dad taught dive bombing at Pensacola, they flew Corsairs. Later, he flew a converted B-17 in the Pacific theatre. The plane had been converted into a flying hospital and he would fly out of Oakland, stop at Pearl, and go to Guam to evacuate wounded soldiers. Years later, I was hired to boss a natural gas container oversize load crossing Guam from the naval base to the north shore. I knew body lice were a problem in Guam and I shaved all the hair off my body. Then John McCain proposed a 30 million dollar cut to the budget for the naval base and Guam pulled the permits for the natural gas development and I found myself with no hair and no job.

A member of a congregation I served in Charleston WV, was "Kemp" McLaughlin, who was a pilot in the 92nd which flew these YB-40's. He told me about this story and also includes it in his book, "The Mighty Eighth in WWII."

As a retired military man, I've long held that if politicos and top military brass were put on the front lines, things might be viewed a bit differently...

I never heard the XP-61 was to be used for escort duty. I thought it was designed solely as a night fighter. The P-38 could have done full escort duty if they'd learned to lean out the fuel earlier in the war. Lindbergh did a lot of experiments with this and I believe almost doubled their range.

Looking at the state of the tail planes of some of those returning B17's it's only the skills of the pilots that they made it home in (relatively) one piece. Looks like they were one pretty tough airplane.

My father worked on bombers during the war. He said they did one simple mod to increase the rate of fire of the 50 Cals - they replaced the felt recoil pads with nickels. The barrels burned out a lot quicker but they were going to be replaced anyway.

If you watch closely, the movie The Best Years of Our Lives shows the carcass of one of those YB-40s' in the scene in the airplane salvage yard, near the end of the movie. Just a glimpse of the modified radio compartment area, but there it is. Great movie, btw. Good video, also a mod done to the B-24 as well.

My father was a waist gunner on a YB-40, so thanks for this. The air crews were switched to regular B-17s after the YB-40s were proved problematic.

An interesting topic coupled with a brilliant video, well done! The mix of historical and video game footage turned out quite nice, good examples.

I liked that you pointed out that though the YB-40 itself wasn't successful some of the lessons learned from it were beneficial. Few books mention that.

Excellent video about the yb-40 and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There is a book called World War !! Gunships by William Wolf. I have learned through reading the book that Yb-40 42-5833 stayed with the 92nd BG when others were being sent back to the US mainland for eventual reclamation and/or crew training. This by itself is not unknown; what is unknown was that the Yb-40 in question was equipped with a Cheyenne tail turret along with staggered waist positions and the radio room turret! The information available about this plane can be found on p by cutting off the cheyenne tail turret.37 and p58-59. This info is a godsend for all the modelers that had to make/install staggered waist positions and/or convert a late b-17g. Uh uh, modelers. I have a 1/32 b-17g (late) and the parts to take a crack at 42-5833. Either way, I'll send pictures but if it's good enough, I might take it to a show or two and raise some eyebrows with that 38-inch wingspan! Wish me luck and godspeed.

I cant imagine the noise of all those gun and engines at the same time, even on standard B-17

The US was essentially like: “You see that plane? Add more guns to it” Engineers: “Okay, what kind and how many?” The US: “All of them”

My uncle was a B-17 pilot who flew 35 missions over Europe. He later became a B-29 transition and instructor pilot for crews preparing for the Japan theater. He won 2 Air Medals, 5 Battle Stars and the Distinguished Flying Cross. He never, ever talked about his time in the war to my brothers and me, but I suppose we were too young in his eyes to understand what he went through. I actually discovered his record which I described above long after he passed.

When performing a demonstration on the ground or flying in your own safe airspace, it always looks great. But flying in enemy territory is completely different. The enemy adjusts to this opponent quite quickly, and then I wouldn't have wanted to sit in a box like that. As I said, those who don't have to sit in it themselves, always find everything really great.

Great information. Another topic you might consider covering in detail is how the required number of missions was almost 100% death sentence to Army Air Corps crews and how many actually achieved their missions.... and then you can include how Doolittle increased the number of missions even more later.

Nice man, I enjoy this historical aviation content, keep up the good work. Would you be up for covering the British Mosquito? I think it could make an interesting video as many War Thunder players may not be aware of the many variation and prety important role it played during WW2. Cheers my man.

Very interesting, as I never knew this variant even existed. WWII has always fascinated me with the fast development and tech churned out in such a short amount of time, and yet this YB40 hadn't ever crossed my radar. Thanks for placing yet another wonder of the time into my own arsenal of knowledge!

Greg's automobile and airplanes does a great video on the p47 and its range. Basically the bomber mafia refused to believe that fighter escorts were necessary. And when it became obvious that they were wrong they tried to save face by hyping up the p51 mustang.

My grandfather's brother piloted a B-17. My grandfather lost other brothers but this one survived and wound up a brigadier general in Air Force. Married a French woman and had two very pretty daughters. My brother and I were quite enamored when we met them on my grandfather's farm. Never saw them again. Glad he made it.

Lots of brilliant ideas are seen to fail immediately they're used in combat.

Martin Caidin wrote an historical book on B 17s back in the 1970s. It included an exciting duel between a yb 40 crew and a captured P 38 over italy.

Seems to me like the YB-40 was basically the airborne equivalent of the M3 Lee. Kind of an okay idea in theory, not great in practice, but taught some very useful lessons. The M3 was mediocre at best, but without it the Sherman would never have been. Without the Sherman the war would’ve looked a heck of a lot different.

The American designers just went: “If that don’t work. Use more gun”

The narrative that the P47's in theater at the time of those early raids didn't have the range to escort the bombers all the way to the targets is a false one, all perpetrated by the "Bomber Mafia" to cover their asses for sending those bombers unescorted on those early raids trying to prove their "The bombers will always get through" concept, they had to do something or they'd have been drug in front of a Congressional inquiry over the unnecessary loss of the lives of so many bomber crews. First off P47's along with P38's were indeed escorting bombers over Schweinfert and Regensburg on later missions to those cities and to cities even further than them before P51's were doing it, P47's and P38's had even been over Berlin before P51's were. Starting with the P47D-15 they had the under wing pylons that could use the US made all metal pressurized drop tanks, it was this very configuration that was used for deep penetration escort by the P47's, and delivery records show that the 56th Fighter Group started receiving P47D-15's in the spring of 1943, months before those early disastrous raids to Schweinfert and Regensburg, even then the earlier P47's already had the ability to use the British made pressed paper drop tanks, either one of those drop tank configurations coupled with using the relay system gave the P47's the range to escort the bombers on any of their missions to date, they just didn't allow them to do it on the early raids trying to prove their pre war concepts, in all fairness nobody had ever done anything like that and it's like they say in life there's only one way to find out, the British had tried it even with early B17's they'd received before the US entered the war but no where on the level or with the number of them in a formation that the Bomber Mafia Generals said was needed to get an effective bomber box for defense, they were sending 4 bombers to a target instead of 60. To complicate matters the Bomber Mafia commissioned a late war report on fighter ranges that they doctored up the number's on to make it seem that the early raids had to go unescorted as part of their cover up to protect their careers and to prevent them from facing a Congressional inquiry over those early unescorted missions, aviation writer's over the years have used either that report or previous books on the subject that used that report as reference material to erroneously state that the early raids had to go unescorted to those targets. You gotta give the Bomber Mafia Generals credit, they created a cover story that to this day is still sticks, between that late war report on fighter ranges and them having the Press Corps push the narrative that the P51 came along and saved the day they created a false history that's stuck. However there have been aviation writer's recently that have poured through records, after action reports and more accurate reports from tests on the P47's concerning their fuel consumption and range to prove that the P47's in the ETO had the range to escort the bombers to every target they'd ever flown to all along.

I met one of these veterans .. Mr j.w. thibadeaux of Rayne, Louisiana...he told me it took all he had to hang on to the .50 caliber machine guns as they fired...he said it ruddled and shook him so had. He lost lots of weight and had to eat lots of rice and gravy to keep on his weight... He was 17 in 1944, a Cajun from south Louisiana....A very humble and Gid fearing man ...Gid bless our veterans who sacrificed their lives to keep us Free from Nazi aggression and tumult and influence....

Father-in-law was on his second mission over France where they were supposed to Rendezvous with the yb-40s, due to weather conditions the yb-40s took off late and never rendezvoused with his group due to their lower airspeed as a result he spent the next two years in Stalag Luft lll.

I knew these were heavily armed but 40mm cannons?! Jesus thats quite something

Gaijin: hmm this may make a good ground strike attacker. Everyone else: are you going to put the AC-130 in?

This was very well done. A few comments. First off - there were a lot of modifications made to various aircraft during the course of the war - some of which were more successful than others. The modifications to B-25's and new tactics were highly successful in the Pacific. They turned regular B-25's into low level B-25 strafers dropping small para-frags. The para-frags were small fragmentation bombs with small parachutes to keep them from detonating until the bomber was clear. Flying on line - a B-25 unit would fly over a Japanese base firing a large number of machine guns and dropping para-frags that would just saturate the Japanese base with fire. Another tactic these aircraft used was skip bombing where they'd drop regular sized bombs from very low levels that would literally skip across the terrain of a base - or - into the side of a ship. While there were problems with some of the early field modifications - like putting machine guns in the wings - the over all effect of these aircraft was so successful that factory produced versions of the aircraft as a Strafer were made. Other aircraft used in similar manner were the A-20 and A-26 attack aircraft which both were modified to be Strafers. As mentioned the reason the B-17 gun ships failed - was that while the initial extra weight of their armament was off set by not carrying any bombs - once the other bombers had dropped - they were much lighter than the gun ships and the gun ships could not keep up with them. There was no getting around that - so the idea failed. In order to carry enough extra weapons to be worth while - the gunships were carrying to much weight to keep up with the returning bombers. Thus - they had to weigh enough to matter - and that made them weigh to much to keep up. The idea just could not be made to work. Another aspect of the modifications in defensive armament would be the remote turrets and pressurized crew compartments of the B-29's. The B-29's had several different remote control positions on the aircraft from which the guns could be controlled - and - which guns were under the control of which remote control gunners could be modified. Thus - if the enemy aircraft were coming in from one direction - the gunner with the best view of them - could be assigned multiple turrets to engage them with. These turrets could then be reassigned as needed. Here though the tactics used by the B-29's over Japan were changed. Initially they were operating as they had been over Europe, carrying high explosive bombs, dropped from high altitude. There were a number of problems with that though. One thing was the Jet Stream - which people were largely unfamiliar with. B-29's flying into the Jet Stream at high altitudes were nearly immobile they were flying into such head winds and this made them very vulnerable to flak. Also - the engines on the B-29's were not as reliable as they would have liked and were being worked to hard to fly at those high altitudes. The other thing was that Japanese Industry was different than European Industry. In Japan - they would build all the parts for something at a lot of little shops scattered about the city - then - bring them all together at an Assembly Plant to be put together. Bombing the Assembly Plant - which could literally just be an open field - accomplished nothing. The other thing was - that Japanese cities were made out of a lot of wood and paper partitions. So they were highly vulnerable to fire. What LeMay did - was take all the gunners but the tail gunner off the B-29's, then load them up with incendiaries and fly them at 10,000 ft. at night. The weight saved by removing all those guns and gunners was put into fuel and bombs. They would then conduct what the British had called "Area Bombing" where the incendiaries would be scattered all over the city - with the intent - of creating a Fire Storm which might have Hurricane Strength Winds. By scattering their bombs over the whole city - they would get all those little manufacturing spots that were providing the parts to be brought together at the Assembly Plants. The difference between the Fire Bombing of most of Japan's cities and the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - was primarily in the number of aircraft used and radioactive contamination of the site. The level of destruction of the cities destroyed in the Fire Bombing was not much different than those destroyed by the nukes. It just took more planes to do it. .

My neighbor flew on bombers during WWII. He was a real character, he never talked about bad missions, just about funny stuff or strange events on missions. He started out in North Africa and then was based in England. He died in the early 1990s. His obituary was a full column in the local newspaper and our jaws dropped when we read it. He did 2 or 3 tours, flew 96 missions, ditched 3 times in the English Channel, had a slew of citations and medals, including three Distinguished Flying Crosses from the US, UK, and French. I was in his house a million times, never saw anything WWII related, never knew his record. I was told that he crewed, at some point the plane "Flakbait" which is in the entrance of the Smithsonian. Different times, different country.

Interesting story about Adolf Galland, when Goering promoted him to command all fighter squadrons of the Luftwaffe, Goering asked him "What do you need to win the war"? Galland's answer? "A squadron of Spitfires." Goering did NOT like that answer.

Good profile, nicely put into context. As is so often the case, the tactics outweigh the technology.

Great video! Very informative. Up until now I have never heard of a YB-40. Thanks! you now have a new subscriber.

I love these presentations just because of the detailed information. I thought I knew a lot about the B17 yet I never knew of this configuration. Thanks.

great perspective! new sub here! my grandfather was a flight engineer on B24, 34 combat missions and twice as many sorties before coming home.

Wow. Never heard of this. Great job keeping another obscure WW2 history alive.

My grandfather Captain John W Anderson was Bombardier Navigator in the 301 bomb group 419 squadron. Flew 50 missions. 43-44. He gave me his official log book! Thank you for this vid. Please do more on the B-17

The B-17 was the 1st 4 engined bomber I made when I was going through my model aircraft making phase, I always made my planes wheels down but the landing gear didn't hold up to self support for the big bombers so my old man used to hang them from the ceiling of my bedroom, now that was a sight, there were no monsters under my bed, I had aircover. PS, They eventually made a movie about the name on my model of B-17, & I still have it..

Good video, very informative. Years ago when I was active duty I was stationed at Ft. Eustis, VA. One weekend me and a buddy were exploring the base and found some old passenger rail cars. Inside one of the rail cars I found a document showing various kits to adapt Jeeps to accept wings…yes you read that right, as well as other bolt on kits to make the Jeep into a multipurpose, multi mission vehicle. For fear of getting myself in trouble I left the documents where I found them….and regretted it since.

The other conversion that Lockheed did on a B-17 was to modify the engine mounts and install four Allyson P-38 engines. Dad said it was strange sitting in the pilot seat for inspections, on a normal B-17, the props were behind you. in the Allyson conversion, the props were in front of you. It was way faster than any other bomber, it could keep up with most fighters, the problem was that it wasn't funded by the military who supplied things like the fire suppression system. On a test flight out over the desert, it caught fire, the crew bailed, and it crashed out near what's now Edwards AFB. The Army wasn't impressed enough to build a second one, and that ended the Allyson conversion.

YB40 is closer to a PB4Y2 from a firepower standpoint, and the type would have been very good at low alt patrol roles.

As many of these type of KZfaq short's I watch, this was the first time I have seen a YB-40. Never knew, so great job!!!!

There was an episode of '12 O'Clock High' (my favorite show in the mid 60's) where at the field level, they modified some 17's into 'Porcupine' aircraft. In this TV show, the planes were so effective, that higher-ups were very interested in getting more information on the modifications. Hollywood......

I've always wondered. I know it'd of been unlikely since it went against standard Doctrine of pretty much any nation at the time. But what if something like the B-17 or in this case, the YB-40. Was used as CAS support? If the B-17 could provide a scary amount of bullets raining down on the enemy. Maybe the killing ability wouldn't be so great due to inacuracy at the height it'd of flown. But the supression ability would've been amazing and the sound of the plane and the guns firing would probably instill a fear into Germans. Best example is the C-47 Gunship used in Vietnam. The loiter time was amazing and just the sound of the guns firing and all the tracer rounds was able to scare off the Vietnamese.

I would be interested in learning more about how these hybrid bombers may have created a pathway to the C130 gunships and the C47 "Puff the Magic Dragon" variants of the originals. I'm certain that a slower development of necessary electronics was a dilatory factor, especially when they were being considered for use at night.

The pictures of shot up aircraft at the end prompted me to remember a poem from high school. I think the last line was by a belly gunner, “and they washed me out with a hose.”

Good video, it’s an interesting topic that I haven’t really looked into much before.

Incredible Video........... Did not know this platform was in SERVICE......... EXCELLENT presentation of the maturation process of the B-17 Evolution and Development. Thank you.

Thanks for keeping history alive.

This is actually a really interesting video. I didn't know you had this on your channel, until it got recommended to me. Cheers👌🏼

They tried putting these heavily armed behemoths on 'Purple Heart Corner' i.e. the extreme edge of V formations where they could use their seemingly endless ammunition. Trouble was after the regular bombers had dropped their loads they had trouble keeping up being loaded down so heavily with extra ammunition. A stark fact was each gun station on a regular bomber carried no more than 5 minutes worth of ammunition do to weight restrictions.

Thanks for covering this plane. Very little is out there about .

I really enjoyed your video! Obviously very well-researched. It is most informative and interesting. Please keep them coming! I have subscribed! ;-)

The yb40 was the last gasp of the bomber mafia. The p47 with drop tanks could have done what they were designed for if allowed. For example,, the ball bering and Messerschmitt were in range,,,a fact.

The grandfather of the AC-130 and the marine variant. Good to learn about.

Great vid - keep up this interesting and entertaining format.

Cool video. I was a WW II history buff long ago when I was in elementary school, long before youtube. None of this information appeared in any of the many books about WW II I read, hence this info was very interesting to me.

I can't imagine how frustrating or frightening that had to be if you were on one of the bomber crews being sent in without protection. Just knowing the people making those decisions with your life, and everyone else's, are stashed away somewhere totally safe. I would not have made a good soldier having to obediently follow orders without question.

Great job with the history of the B-17 as a gun ship. Hard to believe the bomber mafia. How many American airmen were lost because of them.

Excellent presentation and analysis. Keep up the great work!

You could have mentioned the experience with the B-17 gunship is what inspired the designs of the AC-47 Gunship and the Mighty AC-130. Imagine how awesome YB-40 would have been in a ground support role.

Excellent content. Very well presented. Thank you

For a head on shot against a fighter a single cannon hit would likely put it out of action, not so with a single 50 cal.

Thank you for putting together an informative video. Very well edited.

Man i love your historical content videos, cheers from VPO o7

Amazing that the P-51 was available all along but hard headed top brass would not admit that what they were doing was just not working.

Great video, good history info. Thanks so much!!!

Excellent documentary, thanks for sharing. Love yall

Interesting that the a concept was discussed in the uk to remove defensive armament from the Lancaster night bombers and reducing crew, with this weight reduction it would have pushed the airspeed to around 310 mph. However as German night fighters would have still been faster, but the time to intercept would have been longer. it was not undertaken. Also proposed was that for raids to places like Berlin, to only use Mosquito bombers with their high speed, faster than German Interceptors, a bomb load of 4000lbs and a crew of 2. With its higher speed each Mosquito with a crew change could carry out two trips were the traditional 4 engine bomber did one. So 2 day trips and 2 night trips could have been an option, as production switched from heavy's to these 2 engine aircraft. However it became practice to use Mosquitos for day time attacks on Berlin. The specially-modified Mosquitoes were fitted with bulged bomb-bays and more powerful engines in order to accommodate the large 'Cookies'. Each aircraft carried two 50-gallon drop tanks and a 4,000-lb bomb. Its crews dubbed these missions the 'Berlin Express'. They also flew as part of the RAF Path Finder Force. In addition it became practice - as the RAF used, rather than a Box, a bomber stream - to insert night fighters into the stream carrying radar defensive equipment thus mimicking a heavy bomber. This radar was used as 'night fighter bait' allowing the German night fighter to track and intercept. However the as the Mosquito picked up the incoming night fighter on its radar, it switched off the bait, turned the tables and the intercepted Mosquito became the interceptor. Mosquitos Night Fighters also flew in the areas of German night fighter bases attacking German aircraft on the ground, after take off and on approach to landing.

I know it's not quite the same as it was a bomber heavily modified by the crew but what about "old 666" (unnamed bomber tail #12666) in the Pacific? They did one solo recon mission where they shot down 4 Japanese Zeros.

My dad was in the RAF in WW2 and my grandma billited US airmen in her home in Plymouth as many Brits were called upon to do.

"The bombers will always get through." was not something only the US military believed, but actually every country including Britain, France, Japan, and Germany. The assertion was in fact true and even true today because a substantial force within the Soviet and later Russian, and US air force are bombers and there are not provision in either nation to provide fighter escorts for the bombers. Even with the high attrition rate suffered by US bomber forces, the bombers DID get through to bomb their targets.

They should add that to war thunder as an event vehicle or premium as it’s a prototype and full of guns

"strap all guns on the plane" "How many guns you want?" "YES"

The only thing that gave the B17 the legacy it became was the advent of the long range fighter escort. Until that the Eighth air force was beaten and would have ceased to exist.

My Dad worked at Lockheed in Burbank, they built B-17s under license for Boeing. He worked on that aircraft as an inspector, it had one problem. The weight of all the ammunition and guns was more than they calculated. I t was fine heading to the target, but when the other's dropped their bombs, they sped up, he couldn't, it became a sitting duck, a well armed duck, but still on it's own.

Tankenstein, thank you for your efforts. I have many of the books that address this subject. But, I really wish that I had data for the 30 machine gun layout, as well as the 40mm. I dream. May you and yours stay well and prosper.

Great video, keep them coming.

I've worked on restoring B-17s and there's no way you can cram a 40mm bofors style cannon (I assume that's what would have been used) in a B-17. The cannon is too heavy and has too much recoil for the aircraft's construction. You have to remember these B-17s were funny shaped aluminum cans. The engineering is impressive but nothing advanced. Even 20mm cannons might be pushing it depending on location. I suppose you could mount the 40mm cannon in the bomb bay as a fixed mount but that defeats the purpose of a gun platform for air defense.

Fantastic narrative and true to the source!

Thank the Maker for the heroic young women and men that sacrificed (many times, everything) for the rest of us! Rest in peace, heroes!

Hollywood actor Jimmy Stewart should have been celebrated more for his role in WWII as a bomber pilot

Extremely well made and well presented video. Very good speaking ability. Thank you

I've never heard of the YB-40. Thanks!

More airmen in the Eighth Air Force were lost to combat operations than all the Marines were lost in WWII. This is directly due to the failure of Hap Arnold and the leadership of the Army Air Force to learn from the Brits, who quickly learned that daylight bombers were sitting ducks for German fighters and flak.

I have always been a fan of the b 17 this was a much enjoyed video thank you

Would love to hear of the history of the PBY Catalina flying boats, The armed gun ships like the c-130, and also the history p-51 mustang..... Can you make the history of the air craft into its own play list please... I see mostly war thunder game stuff on your channel....

The problem wuth the 40s was that after bombs away, they could not keep up with the lighter bombers due to their extra guns & ammo...they carried no bombs...

I read a book about the B-17 but it never mentioned these changes. Interesting. Each time I hear the story I get sorta angry at the arrogance of our bomber strategy, the fact that we didn’t listen to the Britt’s (also didn’t listen to them about the pocket tanks).

I wish we could learn more about the decision to refuse to send p-47's as escorts. So crazy. P-47's were capable of carrying drop tanks as early 1942

WoW, what a great idea! This is why the YB-40 is so dangerous in War Thunder! Don't get to close LOL. What if more effort was made in engine advancement? Radar directed fire (Maybe a huge jump in historical technology)? Did the concept of in air refueling exist in the era or would it have even been feasible at the time? So many questions, sorry.

This is like bomber crew levels of guns Respect to all veterans for there service

Good job of explaining the plane. Thank You.

Finally, someone does video on it! Tnx 👍