I remember the scene from the movie “Pearl Harbor” where the crews of B-17 bombers are inside their heavy bombers, trying to “lighten them up” so that the Doolittle raiders can take off from aircraft carriers and bomb Tokyo. They had to jettison every pound they could drop, otherwise the planes would just crash into the ocean instead of take off. In the midst of it, the commander tells them to remove the side and tail guns. Now, those guns and bullets were a lot of weight, but they were also the only defense the bombers had against small attack planes. Needless to say, the crews weren’t real thrilled as they painted broom handles black to stick them out of the plane and make it look like they had real guns. They men who normally operated those guns were going into an attack…without their only weapons.