During World War II, the USAAF and US Navy used thousands of Palmer BB machine guns to hone the skills of aerial gunnery.
32.
Due to the lack of armed aircraft, sixteen pilots of the 95th were ordered back to Issoudun to take the course in aerial gunnery.
33.
From 30 September 1918 to 30 January 1919, he was commandant of both the Pursuit School and the Aerial Gunnery School at Carlstrom Field.
34.
He sailed for England with the 22nd Aero Squadron, and received additional flying training at Salisbury Plain in England and aerial gunnery training in Scotland.
35.
He played a series of youthful romantic leads before leaving Hollywood to serve with the Navy as an aerial gunnery instructor in World War II.
36.
These additional resources made possible the establishment of Radio and other smaller schools, along with the aerial gunnery school, with a gunnery range being established.
37.
The instructors were much more proficient than the students in aerial gunnery, obtaining an average score of 43.0 versus a 21.6 average for the students.
38.
During the Battle of Britain, it became apparent that while aircrew had acquired essential flying skills, they had received little or no training in aerial gunnery.
39.
Also during the year, the P-40 Warhawk replaced the P-39 as the primary training aircraft . Aerial gunnery took place off the coast 60 miles distant.
40.
The Squadron went immediately into a strenuous and successful training period which included formation flying, attack and aerial gunnery, bombing night flying and many navigation missions.