Me too! That .50 cal. "Ma Duce" looks great.
My father was a front gunner on a B-24, flying long distance missions in the South Pacific. It was tough, cold, dangerous work. I was surprised one day when he told me flying into a thundercloud wasn't too bad, in fact it could be the safest place around. Apparently the extreme turbulence and poor visibility causes fighter pilots to break off their attack.
And often they didn't get to shoot at the enemy fighters - they would just tag along with the bombers (which were largely unescorted) just out of gun range and radio the altitude of the bombers down to the anti-aircraft crews.
The average guy only survived for 6 months.
SIDENET