TAIL GUNNER!

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During WWII, one of the least-envied jobs in the Army Air Corps was the tail gunner position on a bomber. Completely isolated from the rest of the crew, and virtually "sewed in," the chances of surviving a shootdown of the bomber were slim to none. Enemy fighters loved to come in from the rear, and so facing a hail of bullets out there on the end of the plane was routine.

B-17-TAIL_GUNS-SPOTLIGHT_zpsbcc93f34.jpg


This is a picture of a mannequin (T/SGT Manny Quinn) installed in that position to give you some idea of the environment. This is a restored B-17G; I took the picture at an air show last year. My hat's off in remembrance of these guys and their crew mates who faced almost certain death in daylight bombing runs over Germany and elsewhere during the war.

John
 
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I like how the zippered canvas opens and closes as the barrels move up and down. Low-tech, but effective, nonetheless. :)
 
My old buddy Lou was a tail gunner. He went through gunnery school at what's now Nellis AFB, NV.
Lou said that the afternoon missions were the worst. The thermals and turbulence bounced his head off the sides of the plane. He would get airsickness. First he would puke in the left ammo can, then the right one. You got to do what you got to do!
 
My Mom's young brother was a ball turret gunner.

He survived the war and never would talk about it other than to say it was a Job inTight Quarters.
 
My father-in-law was the ball turret gunner on a B-17, with 33 flights to his credit. Both tail gunner and ball turret were sitting ducks with little to no chance of escape if plane was damaged. The ball turret gunner had @16" square to crawl through to get into and out of the ball. He was issued a stomach parachute, but because it was so crowded he seldom wore it. The correspondent, Andy Rooney tells of witnessing a damaged B-17 coming back to base. The landing gear was damages and a belly landing was to be accomplished. The rub was, the ball turret gunner was stuck inside the ball. The plane had no other option but to land, crushing the ball turret gunner. There was a small island that the crippled bombers would land on if unable to make it back to base. The island was so small that half of the runway was steel matting, the rest of the runway was dirt that was heavily hosed down turning it into mud. This was to slow the plane as much as possible before the plane went into the ocean. My father-in-law was forced to land twice on this island while stuck in the ball. On one occasion both guns were drug off the ball when it hit the mud section of the runway.
 
My father-in-law was the ball turret gunner on a B-17, with 33 flights to his credit. Both tail gunner and ball turret were sitting ducks with little to no chance of escape if plane was damaged. The ball turret gunner had @16" square to crawl through to get into and out of the ball. He was issued a stomach parachute, but because it was so crowded he seldom wore it. The correspondent, Andy Rooney tells of witnessing a damaged B-17 coming back to base. The landing gear was damages and a belly landing was to be accomplished. The rub was, the ball turret gunner was stuck inside the ball. The plane had no other option but to land, crushing the ball turret gunner. There was a small island that the crippled bombers would land on if unable to make it back to base. The island was so small that half of the runway was steel matting, the rest of the runway was dirt that was heavily hosed down turning it into mud. This was to slow the plane as much as possible before the plane went into the ocean. My father-in-law was forced to land twice on this island while stuck in the ball. On one occasion both guns were drug off the ball when it hit the mud section of the runway.

But the gunners survived? Gad, I'd hate that job! :eek:
 
That looks like the "Sentimental Journey"....I went aboard her in Elko,NV awhile back.....wonderful plane.




During WWII, one of the least-envied jobs in the Army Air Corps was the tail gunner position on a bomber. Completely isolated from the rest of the crew, and virtually "sewed in," the chances of surviving a shootdown of the bomber were slim to none. Enemy fighters loved to come in from the rear, and so facing a hail of bullets out there on the end of the plane was routine.

B-17-TAIL_GUNS-SPOTLIGHT_zpsbcc93f34.jpg


This is a picture of a mannequin (T/SGT Manny Quinn) installed in that position to give you some idea of the environment. This is a restored B-17G; I took the picture at an air show last year. My hat's off in remembrance of these guys and their crew mates who faced almost certain death in daylight bombing runs over Germany and elsewhere during the war.

John
 
My dad had a business acquaintance and friend that was a tail gunner late in the war. Little fellow, most B 17 tail gunners were small. When I was a kid my ears would perk up when they started sharing war stories. Saw an ME 262 over Berlin, said he'd never forget it or the chatter when it came through the formation.

Took guts to do the kind of stuff that generation did.
 
In my first job out of high school I ate lunch with one of those guys every day. He was a small man, which I imagine made him a prime candidate for the job. He told me that the average life span of a tail gunner over Europe once the enemy was encountered was 24 seconds. How that was determined I don't know, but that is what he told me.

This experience also contributed to him being the next thing to a nervous wreck most of the time. When I met him he had already had four heart attacks. A couple years or so after I left that business to go to college, I read his obituary in the local paper one evening -another heart attack.

At the time I was a young buck with other things on my mind and gave little thought to the gravity of what the man was telling me. Now I'm greatly sobered by the mere mention of it, or even the sight of a picture such as John posted here -what those young men went through.

Andy
 
my Uncle Donald was a Tail Gunner in the 15th Air Force, out of Italy. He corresponded with his brother, my Dad, while dad was in the Pacific, and said that they lost someone on the plane in almost every raid. He got the Air Medal twice and flew in missions over Berlin, the Romanian Gas Fields and Bursesgarden , just to name a few.

I never met him, he died in an accident in the U.S. shortly after returning home. All those missions and comes home and gets killed in less than a year after coming back!
 
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Gunner

My uncle was trained as a tail gunner in the B-17 in Kingman, Az. As my job covered all of that area, I picked up all kinds of stuff from their training; .50 cal guns; loaded ammo belts; empty casings; etc.. He said the tail gunner did not enter the position until after take off as the tail of the airplane was 17" from dragging and the guns had to be fully elevated. This was both takeoff and landing. The guns were hydraulic, but if that was out they had a hand crank handle to use. His first flight, on landing, the hydraulics didn't work and he couldn't find the handle for the hand crank and lost both guns. As already covered, entering and leaving was very hard. He was in flight over the Atlantic on his way to the war when the war in Europe ended.
 
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