B-29 Superfortress 12 .50 Cals — Japanese Zeros Couldn't Get Close — Gunners Hit at 1,000 Yards

B-29 Superfortress 12 .50 Cals — Japanese Zeros Couldn't Get Close — Gunners Hit at 1,000 Yards

March 30th, 1945. A 20-year-old tail gunner crawls into his pressurized bubble beneath a B-29 Superfortress, trusting his life to the most expensive weapons system ever built. The $3 billion Central Fire Control system—five analog computers calculating trajectories in real-time—promised to keep Japanese fighters at bay with computer-guided .50 caliber fire effective at 900 yards. Double the range of manually-aimed guns. Twice the range of enemy weapons.
The briefings were clear: "These big boys can take care of themselves." One B-29 crew reportedly fought off 79 Japanese fighters, downing 7. The revolutionary remote-controlled turrets would make fighter escorts unnecessary. The computers compensated for gravity, wind, parallax, lead—everything. Japanese Zeros climbing to intercept would be shredded before they could return fire.
Then the first Zero appeared at 700 yards. The guns tracked. The computer calculated. The tracers reached out. And the Zero kept coming.
In this documentary, we reveal the shocking disparity between the most advanced bomber defense system of WWII and the brutal reality of combat over Japan.
What You'll Discover:
• Why the $3 billion B-29 program cost more than the Manhattan Project
• How General Electric's analog computers were supposed to revolutionize aerial warfare
• The devastating moment gunners realized Japanese fighters weren't respecting the 900-yard advantage
• Why 87% of engine fires couldn't be extinguished—killing crews before enemy fighters arrived
• Curtis LeMay's controversial decision to strip defensive guns from B-29s in February 1945
• How complexity became a fatal liability when reliability mattered most
• Personal accounts from tail gunners who watched the promise of invincibility shatter
• The true statistics: 447 B-29s lost, with only 13% of damage from the fighters the system was designed to stop
• Why the war's most sophisticated defensive system was abandoned six months before Japan's surrender
This isn't about technological failure—it's about the moment American crews learned that engineering superiority doesn't guarantee tactical superiority. Japanese pilots closed to 300 yards because it was their only chance. The computers that calculated ballistics with precision couldn't calculate human desperation.
From Guam to the burning skies over Nagoya, witness how the Superfortress won the war not because of its revolutionary defensive systems, but despite their failure.
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