Yesterday's Weapons Forums

Are they sure? That looks alot like a spare fuel tank

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Hunde, wallt ihr ewig leben?

Political Correctness is intellectual fascism
NRA life member
583rd ORD Co/59 ORD BDE
Handorf FRG 1988-1990

IIRC it looks like a belly tank, but why drop an empty tank on a town?

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oldestnavy. I was never in the Navy. The Avatar is the Greek Naval ensign. I believe the Greeks had one of the first and oldest navies in the world.

i agree - dropped to reduce weight and drag , they needed all the remaning fuel to return safely

since i have no idea what a napalm bomb of that era would look like - i will defer - but often the text is incorect and ill admit my comment is based on watching the history channel and they are often wrong as well ,

The smoke stacks would indicate a factory. I can make out the scoop for the radiator, but I see only one tank,---or napalm. Just not enough resolution for my failing eyes. Now the ultimate question. Who took the picture. Maybe----just maybe this was fighter escort for bombers and the picture was taken by a waist gunner or other and in all probability the tank was being dropped prior to engaging enemy fighters. Many different conclusions could be drawn.

I have another question? Would fighters drop bombs in level flight and that low and is that his wingman to his left and back and is he also dropping something? I just cannot tell.

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oldestnavy. I was never in the Navy. The Avatar is the Greek Naval ensign. I believe the Greeks had one of the first and oldest navies in the world.

Correction----Correction. I can now see the bomb. It is perfectly vertical, but the light reflecting off it obscures it and makes it look like part of the background. So they are pairs of Napalm bombs.
I did not see that this was in the Korean section before.
I found a source of the photo. There is a much better 1 meg photo at Wikipedia under P51 Mustang. The picture is well documented. It was taken Jan. 1, 1951 over North Korea. The initial caption was a little confusing. They had changed the name from P51 to F51 (F= fighter) and called it the F51D. This was an official photo and has file numbers. Neat.

Thanks Don.

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oldestnavy. I was never in the Navy. The Avatar is the Greek Naval ensign. I believe the Greeks had one of the first and oldest navies in the world.

Ok, now I see the verticle one, I thought it was a smokestack before

_________________
Hunde, wallt ihr ewig leben?

Political Correctness is intellectual fascism
NRA life member
583rd ORD Co/59 ORD BDE
Handorf FRG 1988-1990