Bit late but, at the end on 1942 RAAF HQ found 22 torpedo sets for Boston's and notified 22 Sqn of the fact , by then the DB-7B's with 22 sqn had been converted to the low level Strafer/Attack role and they quietly ignored the fact Torpedo kits were available , Torpedo attacks was the realm of...
Matt, after service with the 90th BG and after a posting back to Australia Maurice Carse flew A-20 Boston's with 22 Sqn , he was the wingman to the Co WC Emerton when he was shot down on 30 Jan 44 and witnessed the aircraft crash and explode, he then did his final tour on B-24's out of Darwin...
The response I wrote on Aussie modeler is gone as the site has closed down, pity lots of good info on their over the years, I believe the "Porcupine" name was just Allied propaganda, just like "Whispering Death" for the Beaufighter , here is a breakdown of the Sunderland armament over the years...
This aircraft has been misidentified for years , it is actually F6-E of the 670th BS not 5H-E of the 668th BS, I discovered it in the unit histories I have no idea how it ever got misidentified but the wrong Sqn code and Sqn have been linked to this aircraft by just about every model and decal...
A-20C's from US stock were operated initially with their US serial but in around mid 44 they were assigned serials in the HK batch , approx. 56 A-20C's were given HK serials, these were taken from A-20C's to be supplied to Russia , I have looked thru my serials and it appears 42-33313 is outside...
Those last photo's look to be a Dido class Light Cruiser under attack , the look of triple fwd turrets , and the spacing of the twin masts and funnels match a Dido class profile.
Something on Boston engine cowls for you , DB-7B (Boston III) and A-20A's ran the same cowls with single exhaust, what many don't know is the standard and "Tropical" cowls are the same things, the Tropical holes are in all cowls on these models , 8 small cover plates just need to be removed ...
The Boston III has cowl flaps they are just flat not corrugated to allow the exhaust stubs like on the A-20C etc.
You can see them open on this Boston that Belly landed, also the old short intake.
The pic by Greyman is the .30 Browning installation as fitted to the A-20A, the .303 Browning ran the 100 round feed bins on the Boston III's, later Boston IIIA's came with the ammo feed as per the drawing , installation in late 42 is the 100 round bins on the gun as in the photo.
The Boston's used by 88, 107 and 226 in the raid were all Boston III's (W, Z and AL serial batch) with short carby intake and single exhaust outlet on the older style engine cowl not the later multi exhaust outlet out the back of the cowl flaps like on the later Boston IIIA (A-20C's), The Boston...
While the RAAF instructions for Foliage Green/Earth Brown over Sky Blue was the official scheme , aircraft delivered from overseas were not repainted, as it was a waste to repaint a new aircraft, so aircraft like Beaufighter's, Boston's and Vengeances which arrived in 1942 were operated in the...
While doing research on Italian based Boston units mention was made in an 18 Sqn article about A-20G's this sparked my interest as just about every book and article written about RAF Boston ops they all state that the RAF did not operate solid nose Strafer Boston's , wrong!
This got me going on...