105mm Canon

105MM Howitzer

There is evidence to suggest that at least 1 Invader was equipped with a prototype 105MM cannon in the nose.

There is a single drawing showing this gun in a similar fixed position in the nose as the 75MM version.

The source record states that it was the largest forward firing cannon ever shot from a plane, which does suggest that it was at least test-fired. Normally, I wouldn't put too much stock into a single report, but this report comes from "The Machine Gun, Volume 5". This book was written by Col. George M. Chinn, USMC (Ret), who was the United States' foremost weapons expert during and after WWII. He has been called the "Bill Gates of Machine Guns" and this work was the culmination of his life's work. Given who it was that reported this gun, I am inclined to believe him.

I have been looking for the records of this project, but so far, I have not had much luck. Unfortunately, the Air Force didn't label top secret test projects with easy names like "105mm Canon Test", so I do not even know what name to search for.

Newly uncovered documents show that this weapon was indeed fired at least 50 times using a variety of different ammo loadouts spread out across two different flights. The tests were conducted in California, and Floyd A. Thomas was the gunner who volunteered to fire the cannon during the tests. The tests were concluded by Jul 1945.

I have been able to narrow down that this type of cannon was most likely one of two types, either the T12 Aircraft Howitzer or the T9E2 Autoloading Recoilless Howitzer, both of which appear to have been manufactured by Oldsmobile.