Posted on 05/27/2019 8:52:15 AM PDT by Retain Mike
By the way, imagine you are a waist gunner raising the turret when the pilot says, “bail out now”, or you’re the pilot bringing the bomber in for a landing back in England.
Garp.
Death of the Ball Turret Gunner. Remember that one.
Sorry but you’d have had to tranquilize me when i wasn’t looking and have me wake up in one as the only way I would get in there.
I like the idea of a fighting chance.
I remember that George Wallace was a B-17 tail gunner during WWII. Probably his small stature had something to do with his being selected for that location.
His Daughter attended Troy University while I was there. A really cute little blonde, maybe 5 feet tall.
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
Randall Jarrell - 1914-1965
From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
70,000 USAF men died in WWII
“Washed Me Out
with a Hose”
.
Thank You,
Soldiers.
On the B-17(F and G models), the ball turret gunner could exit the ball without it retracting if he could rotate it into a position where the hatch aligned with the opening.
He would have to have electrical power to the turret however.
The G-forces on a spinning, falling B-17 would make it quite difficult for anyone - let alone the ball turret gunner going through all those steps, to exit.
Not a ball turret, but .....
I spent a lot of time hiking trails with a guy (knew him only from hiking). He had a crazy, lewd, almost maniacal sense of humor. He was deeply involved in being a great father. I liked him ... but always felt that mentally, he was moored by a somewhat frazzled, even thin strand. Then, years later, I found out that he was a door gunner on a helicopter gunship during the Vietnam War. This totally explained everything to me - not something he talked about and I only found out from a dear friend of mine (another Navy Vet who had been on the Forrestal during the fire) he had talked to about it briefly ....
Bombadiers had dangerous job too..my husband’s Uncle died in Switzerland as a result of being hit when over Politz
I think you mean Senator (Tail Gunner Joe) Joseph McCarthy.
George Wallace was a flight engineer.
They had reunions every five years for 40 years then switched to every year. When my brother called his crew to tell them of our Fathers passing, they wept like babies, 50+ years later!
My dad was a supervisor in a plant where the Norden bombsight was manufactured. Because of that we had the only private telephone in the neighborhood.
Thanks for sharing the video. My wife and I toured that exact B-17 earlier this year. A humbling and unforgettable experience.
That’s one of my favourite pieces of film, and the first thing I think of when I hear ‘ball turret gunner’.
He supposedly carried a big steel plate that he sat on or put under him somehow (not familiar with the arrangement) and after his 25 or so missions it was all pitted up. Scary stuff.
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