Ball Turret Gunner Belly Landing
So they couldn t just drop the turret.
Ball turret gunner belly landing. Permanently fixed and unable to be retracted there was no hiding from enemy attack. I was watching a show on the history channel this morning called suicide missions or something and it discussed the ball turret a feature of b 17 bombers which was basically a spherical enclosure that hung from the belly of the plane enclosing a gunner whose job it was to defend the plane from attacks from below. It was an enclosure that at any time could become an airman s. The turret held the gunner two heavy machine guns ammunition and sights.
The ball turret gunner was one of the most dangerous assignments in world war ii. Rolling the aircraft into a flaming ball on the runway isn t going to help the ball gunner. The landing gear was stuck also and being after a mission the aircraft probably low on fuel. With kevin costner casey siemaszko kiefer sutherland j j.
A ball turret was a spherical shaped altazimuth mount gun turret fitted to some american built aircraft during world war ii the name arose from the turret s spherical housing. Directed by steven spielberg. Jarrell who served in the army air forces provided the following explanatory note. Ball turret gunner s tale it was their second mission in berlin special a b 17 flying fortress their four engine bomber was part of the 92nd bomb group 407th squadron of the 8th air force flying out of an airbase near podington a tiny farm village some 40 miles northwest of london during world war ii.
The turret was stuck so the gunner couldn t get out and ball turrets were too tight for most gunners to wear a parachute. Hunched upside down in his little. A courageous young world war ii gunner and aspiring cartoonist trapped in the belly gun of a b 17 aircraft with the landing gear destroyed has only his imagination as a force that might be able to save him. B17 belly landing at podington base bedfordshire uk 1944 taken from my dvd which i have produced called the doc furniss war in ntsc pal.
A ball turret was a plexiglas sphere set into the belly of a b 17 or b 24 and inhabited by two 50 caliber machine guns and one man a short small man when this gunner tracked with his machine guns a fighter attacking his bomber from below he revolved with the turret.