B25G
but that they were about to make a long-distance flight in it, Darmstadter had studied at length and with great interest TM 1-B-25-G, Flight Operations Manual, B-25G (Series) Aircraft.
He had realized the moment Commander Dolan had taken him out to the airplane for his first ride that most of his dedicated study had been a waste of time.
“You’ll notice,” Dolan had told him, “that we’ve modified this one a little.”
It was a massive understatement.
The B-25G had been delivered to the Eighth Air Force with a twin.50caliber machine-gun position in the tail; with another pair of.50s in a rotating turret on top of the fuselage at the leading edge of the wing; with two single.50caliber machine-gun positions–“waist guns”–in the sides of the fuselage;
and with two fixed.50s and a 75mm M4 cannon in the nose.
All of the guns had been removed and their positions faired over. The bomb-dropping racks and mechanism were gone, and the bomb-bay doors were riveted permanently closed. Auxiliary fuel tanks had been installed in what had been the bomb bay, where the bombs were supposed to be.
In the fuselage aft of the trailing edge of the wing, where the radio operator’s and waist gunner’s positions had been, there were now five–as many as would fit–light brown leather civilian airliner passenger seats.
The seats had been “salvaged,” Dolan told Darmstadter, from a U.S. Navy Boeing “Strato-Cruiser” transport, that Canidy had “dumped in Africa.”
Darmstadter was very curious to learn more about that, but he had come to understand that while Major Canidy and the others seemed to make jokes about everything else, Canidy had been dead serious about the “Ask No Questions “rule.
Dolan had given Darmstadter seven hours of in-flight instruction in the B25G, which was really more than it sounded like, because with the exception of the first takeoff and landing, Dolan had never touched the controls again.
Somewhat to Darmstadter’s surprise, he had been an apt pupil. Dolan’s only criticism had come right at the start, “Don’t try so hard. It’s not that hard to fly, and you’re a better pilot than you think you are.”
He had made mistakes, of course, but after Dolan had shown him what he was doing wrong, he had not made that particular mistake again. He had had the most trouble, not surprisingly, in landing. The B-25G came in a lot hotter than the C-47, and if the power settings were not right on the mark, it dropped like a stone. The Gooney Bird was a very forgiving aircraft; the B-25 was not.
But he’d shot hour after hour of touch-and-go landings until his technique satisfied Dolan. Then he’d spent another two hours trying to touch down right at the end of the runway and to bring it to a complete stop as quickly as possible.
He was aware that he had not been able to accomplish that to Dolan’s satisfaction. And he was embarrassed about that, even after he told himself that he should not be. What Dolan was asking would have been difficult for a good, experienced pilot, and he knew he was neither.
They heard the crunch of automobile tires a minute before they could see the glow of headlights in the fog. But then the distinctive grille of the Packard limousine appeared.
“I stopped to get the latest forecast,” Canidy said by way of greeting.
“I presume that the rubber bands are all wound up and we can go?”
“It’ll take five minutes to light the runway,” Dolan said.
“It’ll take that long to warm it up,” Canidy said.
“Tell them to light it.”
Darmstadter was confused by that. There were no landing field lights at Fersfield. If there were, he thought, he would have seen them.
Commander Bitter and It. Kennedy drove up in a jeep.
“I would suggest that you wait until you’ve got at least a thousand feet,” Bitter said.
“But Weather says it’s going to be this way until noon, maybe later.”
“I think we can get off,” Canidy said. He turned to Darmstadter.
“Get aboard, Darmstadter,” he said.
“Strap yourself in the seat that faces backward.”
Then he gestured for Dolan to precede him aboard. It was more than a gesture of courtesy, Darmstadter saw. He was telling Dolan that Dolan would function as aircraft commander.