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The B25 Mitchell was named in honour of the fearless US Army Air Corps officer who was court-martialled in 1924 for his tiresome (to officialdom) belief in air power, the B-25 - designed by a company with no previous experience of twins, of bombers or of high performance warplanes-was made in larger quantities than any other American twin engined combat aircraft and has often been described as the best aircraft in its class in World War II. Led by Lee Atwood and Ray Rice, the design team first created the Twin Wasp-powered NA-40, but had to start again and build a sleeker and more powerful machine to meet revised Army specifications demanding twice the bomb load (2,400lb, 1089kg). The Army ordered 184 off the drawing board, the first 24 being B-25s and the rest B-25A with armour and self-sealing tanks. The defensive armament was a 0.5in manually aimed in the cramped tail and single 0.3in manually aimed from waist windows and the nose: bomb load was 3,000lb. The B had twin 0.5in in an electrically driven dorsal turret and a retractable ventral turret, the tail gun being removed. On 18 April 1942 16 B-25Bs led By Lt-Col Jimmy Doolittle made the daring and morale-raising raid on Tokyo, having made free take-offs at gross weight from the carrier Hornet 800 miles distant. Extra fuel, external bomb racks and other additions led to the C, supplied to the RAF, China and the Soviet Union, and as the PBJ-1C to the US Navy. The D was similar but built at the new plant at Kansas City. In 1942 came the G, with solid nose fitted with a single 75mm M-4 gun, manually loaded with 21 rounds. At first the two 0.5in were also fixed in the nose, for flak suppression and sighting, but in July 1943 test against Japanese ships showed that more was needed and the answer was four 0.5in "package guns" on the side of the nose.
Next came the B-25HD with the fearsome armament of 75mm, autocannons and 14 0.5in guns (8 firing ahead two in waist bulges and four in dorsal and tail turrets) and a 2000lb (907kg) torpedo or 3,200lb (1451kg) of bombs. Biggest production of all was of the J with glazed nose, normal bomb load of 4,000lb (1814kg) and 13 0.5in guns supplied with 5,000 rounds. The corresponding attack version had a solid nose with five additional 0.5in guns. Total J output was 4,318, and the last delivery in August 1945 brought total output to 9,816. The F-10 was an unarmed multi-camera reconnaissance version, and the CB-25 was a post war transport madel. The wartime AT-24 trainers were redesignated TB_25 and, after 1947, supplemented by more than 900 bombers rebuilt as the TB-25J, K, L and M. Many ended their days as research hacks or target tugs and one carried the cameras for the early Cinerama Films. |
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Engines: B-25,A and B two 1,700hp Wright R-2600-9 Double Cyclone 14-cylinder two-row radials.
C, D, and G two 1,700hp R-2600-13:
H, HD, J and F-10 had two 1850hp emergency rating R-2600-29.
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