FredJhh
Fred, I remember when I was on an S.B.A. (Standard Beam Approach ) course at Wyton on the 9th. of March, 1943, I met the Captain of a B17 or Flying Fortress as we called it then. He had landed there for some reason or other and I remembered we had trained at the same bases in the U.S.A. He had to do an Air Test before leaving and took me as his second Dicky. He allowed me to take-off and land and I remember that I had never experienced such a "heavy on the controls" aircraft in my life. I had never flown anything heavier than a Boston or Mitchell up to then but even when I flew Halifaxes and Lancasters they were much lighter than the B17 on the controls and especially the Lanc. By the way. a few days earlier , I had flown the "Groupie's," Tiger Moth ,(Nearly all Group Captains commanding an R.A.F. Bomber Station had their own Tiger Moth for getting around in ) also for the first time in my life, as I had trained on the much more powerful Stearman. What a contrast ! I was struck by the armament of the Fortress and had never seen such concentrated power before or since in a WW11 Aircraft. As you say, the .303 was a scandal and had the hitting power of a pea shooter when fitted in two and even one gun positions on the Heavy Bombers of the R.A. F. Regle