THE PILOT REPORTS:"Strafing alone riddled a freighter ..."
.50 CALIBER VICTORY: In the final stages of the concentrated strike, Mitchells, their bombs already dropped on shipping targets close to the shore, launched strafing attacks against this freighter of the 1,900-ton Gosei Maru class, (4) in other pictures.
In the background, the town can be seen burning and smoking furiously. The outstanding feature of the strafing attack is the great destructive effect of forward firepower even against the steel-plating of merchantmen. Originally utilized only as antiaircraft neutralizers it was found the forward guns were invaluable in destroying deck cargo, in piercing oil lines and, in some cases, even penetrating to the boilers and furnaces. As this photograph illustrates, inflammable cargo in the hold amidships of the Gosei Maru has been set ablaze by strafing. |
  
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Flying three abreast, the B-25s leveled their guns against the freighter while three twin-turrets covered the escape from the area.