I thought I'd throw together a short backstory for this, so here it is:
The B-27A
With the United States’ entry into WW2 they came into close contact with the concept of the unarmed high-speed bomber in the form of the de Havilland Mosquito. Impressed by this aircraft & the concept, the US Army Ordnance Branch (USAOB) put out feelers for feedback from the US aircraft industry.
North American Aviation (NAA) were the first to respond, with a sketch of a plane which was, basically, an unarmed variant of their new B-25C medium bomber. Never fully convinced by the “unarmed” part of the concept, USAOB requested that NAA restore some fire-power to the plane & gave them the XB-27 designation. NAA gave the XB-27 designation to the original sketch & worked on lightening the aircraft to account for the extra weapons. This involved removing all of the fuselage above the nose profile, moving the pilot in next to the nose wheel well (losing the co-pilot in the process), refitting the dorsal twin .50 call machine-gun turret, the flexible bombardier’s .50 cal machine-gun & the fixed forward firing .50 cal machine-gun. A hatch was also added to the lower port-side nose, as the bombardier had lost any access back to the rest of the aircraft. This aircraft they called the XB-27A.
The USAOB put in an order for 600 of these aircraft which were, as much of the tooling was that of the B-25, produced in sufficiently quick times that sufficient were able to be sent to the North African theatre for use by the RAF before Operation Torch.
The first squadron supplied with these aircraft was No. 3141 Squadron RAF (allocated the squadron code V5), a Czech manned squadron operating in North Africa. Using the high speed & agility of the B-27A 314Sqn carried out numerous successfully harassing raids against German & Italian airfields, supply depots & transport convoys (both on land & at sea).
V5-X (RB281R) "Jana" was flown by Flight Lieutenant Tomáš R. Diviš (the aircraft was named after the wife he left behind in Czechoslovakia) with the regular crew of Flying Officer Lukáš Dvořáček (bomb-aimer), Pilot Officer Marek Hruška (navigator), Flight Sergeant Jaroslav Přibyl (radio operator) & Flight Sergeant Alois Trnka (turret gunner/engineer). This aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire whilst attacking a transport convoy off the Tunisian coast on the 16th of March 1943, crashing into the sea whilst returning home. The crew survived relatively unscathed & were rescued by the destroyer HMS Jervis.
B-27A
General characteristics
• Crew: 5 (pilot, navigator, bombardier, turret gunner/engineer, radio operator)
• Length: 52 ft 11 in (16.13 m)
• Wingspan: 67 ft 7 in (20.60 m)
• Wing area: 618 sq ft (57.4 m2)
• Empty weight: 18,870 lb (8559kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 35,000 lb (15,876 kg)
• Powerplant: 2 × Wright R-2600-13 Twin Cyclone 14-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial piston engines
Performance
• Maximum speed: 354 mph (570 km/h, 308 kn) at 13,000 ft (4,000 m)
• Range: 1,550 mi (2,495 km, 1,347 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 24,200 ft (7,400 m)
Armament
• Guns: 4 × .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns
• Hardpoints: 2,000 lb (900 kg) ventral shackles to hold one external Mark 13 torpedo
• Bombs: 3,000 lb (1,360 kg) bombs
1: Although allocated the squadron code UY during April to September 1939, No.314 was not an active RAF squadron at this time. The 314 number was then given to No. 314 Technical Services Unit before that designation was changed & the Czech squadron being formed as No. 314 Squadron in late 1941, flying Blenheim IVs.
