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Thorsrud also pointed out that under the original plan there would have been plenty of loiter time for the B-26's; and according to him, the aircraft could have unloaded all the armament that they carried and still had time for reconnaissance. 58/ In response to a question regarding the configur- ation of the a-gun nose, rather than mounting fou~ .50 calibers and 37mm cannon or, perhaps, a 75mm cannon and two .50 calibers, Thorsrud said: Oh God ••. an 8-gun nose ... you can roll a locomotive off that track with it .•. Eight .50's .•• we had all we needed to take out any of the Sea Fury's, the T-birds -- the jets that they had -- and most of the light tanks, and then we had .•• I can't remember all the ordnance that we had ..• 500 pounders and frags. We had all the ordnance that we needed to do the job that we were supposed to do. 59/ Col. Stan Beerli also defended the choice of the B-26 as quite adequate for the mission that had been planned for the Brigade Air Force, and he, too, emphasized the twin-engine aspect as one of the more favorable features of the B-26 in comparison to any single engine aircraft. 60/* * There were one Or two aspects of the B-26 however, which were looked on with less favor by the Air Oper- ations people, one was the difficulty that the aircraft (footnote continued on following. page) - 46 -