[{HVY-E}Jinxx]

An exploding oxigen tank is extremely dangerous. These wideos clearly show the power of the decompression blow alone, but there's more: If there is an "ignition source" nearby (just think about a hot engine, exhausts or sparkles from bullet strikes), the high concentration of oxigen in the air would create ideal conditions for combustion. Oxigen won't burn on its own, but it will enormously boost the burning of everything else. In the case of a shot-up plane, that just means "BOOM". Warbirds designers surely always took high care of this aspect to minimize the risk.

Speaking of the suggested mod, that would be cool, but I agree with the fact that this limitation shoould affect AI, too.

Actual account B-17 crewman/gunner Morry Crow.

http://www.silvercitysd.com/files/MorryStory.pdf


“We were bombing targets at 24 to 26,000 feet and decided
to go down to 7,000 feet to get a better view. The next thing I
knew, I woke up, the floor was gone, and I wasn’t in the turret.
The co-pilot was giving me first aid and sharing his oxygen. I
had a piece of metal in my leg.”
Initially one of 21 planes in a formation, the “Stud Duck” crew
found themselves all alone in the sky with one man lost, and
two engines gone in the right wing.
A newspaper clipping from Morry’s scrapbook quotes the then-
24-year old’s account of the incident, which interestingly was
the first of a record three oxygen explosions on three separate
combat missions that the young man would survive:
“We were attacking airfields around Bordeaux and, just as we
were leaving the target, we were attacked by 12 FW 190s and
had the number 1 and 2 engines shot out by a fighter attack.
The engineer and waist gunner were wounded. A 20 mm. shell
burst right in the oxygen tank underneath the cockpit and blew
the heavy floor boards to pieces. It even wrecked the armor
plating there. We had to leave the formation and come home
alone. Just before we hit the coast we met another crippled B-
17 and we flew formation with it over the coast.”
The second time Morry’s oxygen tank exploded was on
another Bordeaux raid. A 30-calibre bullet ripped through the
right side of the aircraft and hit the tank, blowing it up. The
fact that the plane didn’t start on fire baffles him today like it
did at the time. “Why? I don’t know. That’s the way luck runs,
I guess,” he said after the attack.
Luck was also on the crew’s side during the third tank explosion,
which occurred over Brunswick, Germany. The half-empty
tank was struck by a rocket fragment and the oxygen oozed
out. Incredibly, it didn’t ignite. “I guess that’s what saved us,”
he said.
All told, Morry and his crew completed 27 missions during
eight months of flying combat with the 8
th
Air Force in the
European Theater, and based on the difficulty of the missions,
got credit for 30.