North American B-25J Mitchell

The North American B-25 Mitchell is a twin-engine, mid-wing, military combat monoplane developed and manufactured by American aviation company North American Aviation.The aircraft is renowned as one of the most successful bombers flown by the U.S. Army Air Corps (which would become the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1941, which in turn would become the U.S. Air Force in 1947). It took its maiden flight in 1940 and saw combat in all theatres of the Second World War.

The B-25J was armed with up to sixteen 50 caliber Browning machine guns and could carry up to 3,000lbs of bombs. Pilots reported that the machine was easy to fly with little to no vices and was an extremely rugged and agile performer under battle conditions. The B-25J model was the most common of all the versions with almost 5,000 built in various forms. One major modification was where the glazed nose of the airframe was replaced by a solid nose, housing 8 Browning 50cal. machine guns. This version became one of the Second World War's most effective ground-attack machines. Four additional pods each housing a 50 caliber machine gun could be attached to the sides of the airframe to further increase the armament which together with the upper turret and tail guns gave some B-25Js a total of 14 to 16 machine guns.