The
B-25C was manufactured at the Inglewood North American plant with deliveries
beginning in January of 1942. “C” and “D” variants were the same,
the dash numbers and letter designating the place of manufacture.
Autopilot,
R-2600-13 Holly Carb engines, de-icer system, 24 volt electrical system, larger
wing tanks and removable bomb bay tank became standard features. The bomb bay
was enlarged; fittings to carry underwing bombs, and short belly torpedo were
included. .50 caliber nose gun replaced the previous .30 caliber, also
adding an astrodome for the navigator to take star/sun fixes.
167
“C” and “D” models went to the British as “Mitchell II’s”, 162 to
the Netherlands, 4 to Canada and 29 to Brazil.
Click on
images below to see larger images
After
locating the Albatros “Dragons and tigers and girls..oh my!” 4years ago, I
decided it was time to build some of them.
This
is aircraft #1 on the sheet and is a B-25C-5-NA (s/n 42-53451) of the 310th
BG / 428th BS M.T.O. located in 1943 Tunisia. Noted are the yellow
horizontal bands on the tail, these were adopted in April of 1943. This aircraft
does carry the lower turret which was deleted from later “C” and “D”
versions. It was noted that the periscope finder was useless to track enemy
fighters, it just made the gunners dizzy.
The
P-51 is “Mah Sweet Eva Lee” from the 154th recon squadron, also
in Tunisia.
Information
from decal sheet, Squadron Signal Publications #34, Instruction sheet and
Osprey’s B25 Mitchell Units of the MTO.
Mark L. Rossmann
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