In particular, the twin tail guns. They look like they have angled Tips/Sleeves on the ends of the barrels. What were those for.? Thank You
Odd that they only seem to be used on the front and rear turrets guns on B-17s and B-24s and nothing else. Not even the top and ball turrets on the same planes. Maybe something to do with smoke deflection along the long axis of the plane?
I was thinking that it might have something to do with the pairs in the nose and tail being so close together. They weren't synchronized with each other so they must have occasionally fired at just about the same instant. Maybe projectiles were disrupted by the muzzle blast from the other gun when this happened. But the devices were also used on the B-24 tail turret, which had widely spaced guns. Tough one.
Flash hiders A model however Includes 13 Barrels, 13 Jackets & 4 Flash Hiders Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Machine Gun Barrels Set, Master AM-48-138 (2017)
Found something related. Fighter planes used staggered mounting positions for their wing 50's. If the muzzle ended up behind the wing leading edge it needed something called a blast tube attached. P-51s and Corsairs used them.
Lots of food for thought. It's one of the things i love about WW2......it was the dawn of Modern Technology, yet it was still an Analog World that makes sense to me.
Isn't it to guide the muzzle flash off to the side so that the space between & above the barrels is kept clear so the gunner can see the target ?
That seems brilliant answer. It's got to be that. Only nagging question is why were they on some, but not all, B-24 tail guns? They were as wide apart as the B-17 and B-24 top and ball turret guns, which didn't use them.