Ammo allotments when the Radio Compartment gun was removed

Post
drummerboy
Group Member
I recently came across this information concerning the  B-17 gun position ammo allotments .
Bendix chin turret - sight  & control - two 365 round ammo boxes .
Top turret - 400 rounds per gun .
Radio compartment gun - w/one - 250 round ammo box.
Ball turret - w/ two - 500 round ammo boxes.
Waist guns - w/ two -600 round ammo boxes.
Tail guns - w/two- 565 round ammo boxes.
Was this the standard ammo allotment on ALL B-17s ?
When the Radio Compartment gun was removed , was its 250 round ammo box dispersed among  the  other gun positions or was the ammo  completely eliminated to help reduce the planes weight  and increase its  range.
post edited by drummerboy -
billrunnels
Division Member
Re:Ammo allotments when the Radio Compartment gun was removed
While I was there in 1945 we carried 250 rounds per chin turret gun -  total 500 rounds.
jpeters140
Moderator
Re:Ammo allotments when the Radio Compartment gun was removed
This is a partial answer....
The CAF AZ Wing's B-17 "Sentimental Journey: that travels to airshows, has a top turret removed from the Milwaukee, Oregon Gas Station's B-17G.
Instead of three small ammo containers for each .50 Cal gun in the top turret,..the top turret structure is composed of two deep ammo cans, that comprise the actual structure...and the top turret came from a late model Vega built B-17...I am guessing that the top turret was developed from the YB-40...I have never seen any information as to the capacity of each side support structure, but, I estimate at least a top turret ammo capacity of  approximately 1000 rds per gun for this particular top turret.
 
The designation for this top turret was a Sperry type A1-C.
 
In my 15th AF bomb group,(99th BG), we carried the radio gun on all missions until the end of the war..it was not removed as some of the 8th AF bomb groups are reported to have modified thier B-17s.
 
Another item is a remark made by a member of my unit (99th BG), is that several extra ammo boxes were carried on missions in the B-17s of the 15th AF. When asked how many extra boxes of ammo were carried on a mission...the answer was "Oh...10-15 extra boxes"....each ammo box weighed approximately 250-300 lbs. (these were the wooden cases, but, I did not get the locations where the extra boxes were carried...possibly one or  two in the nose for the cheek guns,and the rest in the waist.
 
Jim :-)