PAT NORTON'S WAIST GUNS

Walt Gaylor, President, 22nd Bomb Group
Mesa, Arizona
1/18/89

Dear Walt:

We hope this sees you entering the New Year in top spirits, Marge and all the offspring as well.

An item appeared in the December, 1988, Newsletter that I feel needs clarification, though I don't mean to take issue with, or question, others' claims.

Page six, fourth paragraph, line seven, "Before Pat Norton's idea on Walt Krell's crew."

I can't seem to place Rickman, the aircraft he modified, or the pilot.

It seems unlikely that he could have accounted for five Zeros in two days without this becoming common knowledge among those of us in the thick of things.

Pat Norton has been, I believe, all too modest about his contribution.

Following a series of missions, Pat began talking to me about his frustrations as an effective gunner in combat from the waist position. He felt that the 30 caliber guns were useless: it was necessary to fire them from a cramped position with restricted visibility, and he had no opportunity to lead and fix his fire as the enemy attackers flashed by.

Pat wanted 50 Caliber guns and windows to enable him to fire from a kneeling position.

As usual, Pat Norton made sense. And this led to many discussions with personnel (inside and outside the 19th) who might have knowledge about how the fuselage and skin could be altered without weakening the structural integrity of the aircraft.

Once decided, work commenced. This proved to be much more than a simple sawing off of little pieces. Red Hasselback was one whom I recall working all night along with other sheet metal people and mechanics to get the job done before the next mission. The Plexiglas windows were fitted to accommodate Pat's large frame.

Next came the job of test flight. With a skeleton crew and the Martin representative in the tail, I repeatedly climbed the B-26 1433 to above 10,000 feet and dived, well exceeding the red-lined air speed limit in every maneuver I felt the aircraft might have to undergo. I tested diving turns to the right and left, as well as blackout pullouts, but the Martin representative reported no peculiar vibrations or apparent change in flight characteristics.

Now the guns had to be mounted and fired extensively to test not only the stability of the heavier mounts, but also the effects of the added muzzle blast on the skin of the aircraft.

Next, it was time to see what Pat could do in combat. Early on we decided it was not possible to confirm exactly whose guns in a given formation had actually been responsible for hitting a zero. That is, with six guns on each B-26 all pounding away during a fight, how could anyone honestly say whose marksmanship did what? If a knockdown could be confirmed, the credit was attributed to the entire flight crew. We had no cameras--only the word of a lot of excited kids.

Though loading a tracer every fifth round tended to overheat the guns and cause them to jam, using tracers was an effective way to keep the enemy at bay temporarily. Early on, we had observed that on occasion the Zeros would blow apart Hollywood-style, and we wondered why. It turns out that the Zeros were equipped with a fuel tank that was not self-sealing, and this fuel tank was actually located forward of the cockpit. As a result, the Zero pilots were very cautious of our tracers. Taking advantage of this, we would load every fifth round a tracer when we prepared for particularly heavy Zero assault, thus keeping the enemy at distance for a short time.

There was another curious phenomenon. Often a Zero would fade on past after an attack with his guns continuing to fire. We wondered about this, but it turns out that instead of the Zero's gun trigger being spring loaded so that the guns would quit firing upon release of the trigger, these guns had some kind of a switch that needed to be activated and deactivated. If the pilot became incapacitated, he would not be able to get his guns turned off and we felt it reasonable to assume that this was a probable hit. When the Zeros went into the drink, we knew we had them. Our pilots, on the other hand, never saw any of this action, and had to take the word of the crew. This is because all Zero attacks were frontal by this time, with the final action taking place to the rear of our pilots' vision.

With reference to Pat Norton again: if we were to prove his innovation and improved marksmanship, we had to contrive a situation which would not unduly expose the formation, but clearly show Pat's work. The enemy quickly learned never to approach us from the rear, but they did know our belly was unprotected and knew our flanks were vulnerable below the turret gun stops. If given an opportunity, they would move into attack interception distance just out of range of those tracers from the 30 caliber waist guns. This of course was the reason we got down on the deck so fast after coming off the target.

For this next mission over Lae, we were given no specific targets ,other than to keep the enemy off balance, since we did not have to hold still for a specific bomb run. I took the formation in from the land side above 9,000 feet, and wound on through the target area to confuse their 80 millimeter AA guns, and emerged over the water at about 7,000 feet. If nobody was hurt, I would collect any stragglers, tighten the formation, and head downhill for home.

On this day, however, I leveled us off between 3,000 and 4,000 feet. With the great diving speed of the B-26, time would be needed for the Zeros to catch up and array themselves in their usual lineup, preparing for the attack. Early on, the Zeros would sometimes line up on either side of us. Their attacks were uncoordinated and they found themselves firing at each other. We were fairly sure by now they would attack from only one direction. I relied heavily on the constant vigilance of Gene Grauer, the navigator. From the navigator's bubble, he was able to give me instant knowledge of the positions of all aircraft, ours as well as the enemy's.

Holding a steady course now, with three Zeros off to our right about 1,000 feet below us (and just beyond the waist guns' 30 caliber range), the Zeros slowly gained the necessary lead to allow the proper interception for frontal attack. In the next instant, Pat Norton made history. Undeniably and with total confirmation, Pat proved his idea and his 50 caliber guns. Two kills.

In my lead pilot position, I could not see what happened, so you can't prove it by me. However, enough crewmen did see it to tell the story--you'll have to find out from them how it happened. In any case, I don't recall them being a threat to our flanks after this--their attacks were always frontal. The Zero pilots seemed to be a close group in passing the word around. I doubt we could have gone up the following day and pulled the same stunt, which would make me wonder how G. Rickman managed it.

Following this mission, there was a great stir within the 22nd Group. Our people seemed to get the word around quickly too. We hadn't been back in Townsville more than a day when Maj. Joc Reed directed me to remain at the airplane with the crew until the visit by an assortment of VIP's would be over. That afternoon, four or five staff cars pulled up at our dispersal area. Col. Devine led a tall man over to me and introduced Gen. Ralph Royce. There were other officers, and full colonels whose names I don't recall.

Said Gen. Royce to me, "Young man, what have you done to this bomber that makes it worth my time to come and see?"

I took him to the rear of the B-26 and showed him the works. He then attempted to enter the cockpit. The little metal ladder which hooked up in the nose wheel well came unhooked, almost causing the General to fall. In his parting conversation with me, he asked what I thought of the nose wheel type aircraft. Before I could answer, he declared he was about to condemn it.

After the VIP's had all driven away, I had to chew out the flight and ground crew--they had all ducked into the nearest tent when they saw the staff cars arrive, and their sniggering over the General's mishap could be heard audibly.

Within a very few weeks, all 22nd Group B-26s were thus modified with some variation as to window size in order to accommodate the gunner.

Finally, these new changes in the design of the bomber became actual factory modifications in the production of new B-26 models.

All this is a tribute to the ingenuity of Pat Norton. If I seem to be overreacting, Walt, it's because nobody is going to steal any thunder from those gallant kids that made up my crew. What happened here was not a copycat stunt, and here is where it began.

Sincerely

Walt Krell