Ball Turret Gunner Height

Gunner mason howe survives these harrowing missions while operating one of the plane s most innovative defenses.

Ball turret gunner height. As an aside raf bomber command which flew the night missions had 44 5 death rate and a. Hunched upside down in his little. At the height of world war ii allied bombing missions often include hundreds of boeing b 17 flying fortresses that strike deep behind enemy lines. The ball turret gunner from b17 42 31377 pot o gold crashed on 22 feb 1944 tells in ball turret about his job.

The space inside the turret was very small and cramped. Now he is 87. However i have read accounts of some ball turret gunners as tall as 6 feet which would make for a very tight and uncomfortable ride. It was an enclosure that at any time could become an airman s.

66 years after the crash he still remembers his part of world war ii. The sperry ball turret was under the plane as seen in the photo. He felt a need to enlist in the army and defend his country. I had heard a couple of horror stories of how they were trapped if they aircraft had to do a wheels up landing etc but i didn t know if they were true or not.

The ball turret gunner was one of the most dangerous assignments in world war ii. Nasm si 80 20353 aerial gunnery training had a make do try anything quality resulting in the design of 16 types of outdoor ranges. 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. The turret held the gunner two heavy machine guns ammunition and sights.

Permanently fixed and unable to be retracted there was no hiding from enemy attack. He was considered a perfect fit for the b 17 s ball turret. Ball turret gunners did not carry their chest pack chutes inside the turret with them due to cramped conditions. After watching a b 17 flying recently i was curious how the underside ball turret gunner entered exited the turret.

The ball turret like this one on a b 17 in england in 1943 was designed small to reduce drag so its gunner usually was the shortest man in the crew. 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. Alan magee decided to join the us army after japanese attacked the american fleet at pearl harbor. See much more from sgt lester schrenk.

The us 8th air force which flew daylight missions over europe had a 19 death rate if you survived being shot down you had a 17 chance of become a pow. Most ball turret gunners were chosen because of their short height. Jarrell who served in the army air forces provided the following explanatory note. Was it from below or from inside.