Ball Turret Gunner Stuck

Rolling the aircraft into a flaming ball on the runway isn t going to help the ball gunner. World war ii veteran hal millett describes what it was like to be a ball turret gunner in a b17 bomber in 1945. In the following clip from wing and a prayer.

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From my mother s sleep i fell into the state and i hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.

Ball turret gunner stuck. 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. It is about the death of a gunner in a sperry ball turret on a world war ii american bomber aircraft. I personally interviewed him many times and corroborated his story with other sources the ball turret had lost all power so to get out he had to manually retract the ball. The landing gear was stuck also and being after a mission the aircraft probably low on fuel.

A major player in one of my nonfiction ww2 books was a ball turret gunner who was stuck there when the pilot called to abandon ship because the bomber was going down. One involving a ball turret gunner in the belly of a b 17 who was killed when his turret stuck and the crippled plane had to make a wheels up. The turret held the gunner two heavy machine guns ammunition and sights. It was a manned turret as distinct from remote controlled turrets also in use.

The turret was stuck so the gunner couldn t get out and ball turrets were too tight for most gunners to wear a parachute. Ball turret gunners on b 17 bombers were protected only by a glass bubble jutting out from the bowels of the plane. It was an enclosure that at any time could become an airman s. Seen here is a ball turret gunner in a b 17 from the 92nd bomb group during world war two.

Video by kate irby the bradenton herald more from the bradenton herald. So they couldn t just drop the turret. 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. Permanently fixed and unable to be retracted there was no hiding from enemy attack.

The ball turret gunner was one of the most dangerous assignments in world war ii. The death of the ball turret gunner is a five line poem by randall jarrell published in 1945.