During 1942 and 1943, the lack of a usable black girl escort in west london fighter for the United States Army Air Forces in the European Theatre of Operations led to experiments in dramatically increasing the armament of a standard Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress, and later a single Consolidated B-24D Liberator, to each have 14 to 16 Browning AN/M2 .50 cal machine guns as the Boeing YB-40 Flying Fortress and Consolidated XB-41 Liberator respectively. Smaller gunship designs such as the Fairchild AU-23 Peacemaker and the Helio AU-24 Stallion were also designed by the United States during the Vietnam War. It was the later and larger Lockheed AC-130 Gunship II that became the modern, post-World War II origin of the term gunship in military aviation. In the more modern, post-World War II fixed-wing aircraft category, a gunship is an aircraft having laterally-mounted heavy armaments (i.e. firing to the side) to attack ground or sea targets. In modern usage the term "gunship" refers to fixed-wing aircraft having laterally-mounted heavy armaments (i.e. firing to the side) to attack ground or sea targets. None of the German twin-engine heavy fighters types were produced or converted in large numbers.

De Havilland also produced seventeen Mosquito FB Mk XVIIIs armed with a 57 mm (2.24 in) QF 6-pdr anti-tank gun with autoloader, which were used against German ships and U-boats. After the defeat on the North Atlantic convoy lanes, it became clear to Dönitz and Hitler that a new generation of U-boats was urgently needed. While adopting the same chassis and powertrain upgrades as the sedan (and its redesigned interior), the Escort station wagon shared nearly its entire body with the previous generation (from the base of the windshield rearward). American-led escort groups were prefixed with the letter "A"; while "B" indicated British-led escort groups and "C" designated Canadian-led escort groups. And, as long as its 45-flare and 24,000-round basic load of ammunition held out, it could do this intermittently while loitering over the target for hours. March 24: The Chindits, a British special army force comprised of Indian nationals, are left rudderless after their leader, Major General Orde Wingate, dies in a plane crash over Burma. These were to accompany regular heavy bomber formations over occupied Europe on strategic bombing raids for long-range escort duties as "flying destroyer gunships".

The Germans also made a sizable number of heavy fighter types (Zerstörer-"destroyer") armed with heavy guns (Bordkanone). The British also made large numbers of twin-engined fighter bombers. August 7: Lieutenant General William "Strafer" Gott is killed by a Nazi German air assault in Egypt one day after reporting to his new post as commander of the British Eighth Army. Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport was successfully modified into a gunship by the United States Air Force with three side-firing Miniguns for circling attacks. These aircraft were meant to be cheap and easy to fly and maintain, and were to be given to friendly governments in Southeast Asia to assist with counter-insurgency operations, eventually seeing service with the Khmer National Air Force, Royal Thai Air Force, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force as well as limited use by the United States Air Force. The lesser known Fairchild AC-119G Shadow and AC-119K Stingers were twin-engine piston-powered gunships developed by the United States during the Vietnam War. The operations were met with mixed enthusiasm, and the armed H-34s, known as "Stingers", were quickly phased out. Additionally, in 2013 the US Air Force Special Operations Command reportedly tested a gunship version of the C-145A Skytruck armed with a GAU-18 twin-mount 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine gun system.

In 1942, convoys west of 26° West came under the command of the US Vice-Admiral, Arthur Bristol, along with the escort forces in the western North Atlantic as Task Force 24. The Canadian Western Local Escort Force (WLEF, also Task Group 24.18) was under the tactical command of the Commanding Officer Atlantic Coast, Rear-Admiral Leonard Murray, at Halifax, Nova Scotia, comprising 25 Canadian and 13 British destroyers and corvettes that escorted convoys from Halifax to the Western Ocean Meeting Point (WOMP) at 49° West, when SC convoys began sailing from Halifax. The design choice, which some people criticized, proved to be a point int he Mosquito's favor. Today we see grainy photos and drawings of dead women from a remote past; at the time, the murders of these very real people caused very real fear among the population. The staggering casualties of Student's otherwise successful 1941 paratroop invasion of Crete caused Hitler to forbid any further major airborne operations.