Ball Turret Gunner Training
On a b 24 liberator the ball turret was hoisted into the fuselage for takeoff and landing.
Ball turret gunner training. The death of the ball turret gunner. Nowhere else in the world. The ball turret gunner was usually the shortest crewmember. 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.
Six miles from earth. Due to scheduling and additional training received by some members of frank s crew he flew his first combat mission as a ball turret gunner with the lt dow c. Training vid of how to operate the b 17 ball turret in the trainer before we actually got to use it in flight in the b 17 909 at bomber camp may 2015 at stockton ca. There was no room for a chute in this cramped position.
Billy nelson s sgt 834th ball gunner. The spherical manned ball turrets deployed mainly on the bottoms of b 17 and b 24 heavy bombers were very small in order to reduce drag and were. From my mother s sleep i fell into the state and i hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. The primary target was oranienburg germany.
Pruitt crew on april 18 1944. The city was the site of a nazi nuclear energy project. Air force training of turret gunners during world war ii. A ball turret was a particular form of spherical form altazimuth mount movement manned aircraft gun turret accommodating the gunner with nearly all the needed equipment for defensive firepower except for the ammunition storage mounted either within or onto the spherical shell of the turret structure mounted on aircraft during world war ii the most common one was manufactured by the sperry.
It was a manned turret as distinct from remote controlled turrets also in use. Guns mounted on trucks. 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. Ball turret gunners squeezed into the fetal position to man their turret and protect the bomber against attack from below.
He usually did not climb in until after take off and climbed out again before landing. Once training was complete aerial gunners were sent out to operational bomber units as crewmen serving as waist gunners tail gunners or most physically demanding as ball turret gunners. The turret held the gunner two heavy machine guns ammunition and sights.