Jenny And The Ball Turret Gunner
Out of that new war in the air came the most anthologized poem of the war the only world war ii poem most readers know death of the ball turret gunner by randall jarrell.
Jenny and the ball turret gunner. It is about the death of a gunner in a sperry ball turret on a world war ii american bomber aircraft. Warfare the death of the ball turret gunner title right from the start jarrell confronts the reader with ideas and images of war. The flying ball ball turret gunners documentary classic history a ball turret was a spherical shaped altazimuth mount gun turret fitted to some american built aircraft during world war ii. Permanently fixed and unable to be retracted there was no hiding from enemy attack.
Death and the gunner. The death of the ball turret gunner quotes. Randall jarrell 1914 1965. Already a well known poet and professor jarrell had enlisted in the army air corps in 1942 but washed out of the flight part of his pilot s training program.
The ball turret gunner was one of the most dangerous assignments in world war ii. The death of the ball turret gunner by randall jarrell about this poet poet and critic randall jarrell was born in nashville tennessee. Six miles from earth loosed from its dream of life i woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. Price new from used from single issue magazine january 1 1976.
As a child he spent time in los angeles where his grandparents lived and he would later write movingly about the city in the lost world one of his best known poems. 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. Ball turret gunners on b 17 bombers were protected only by a glass bubble jutting out from the bowels of the plane. The death of the ball turret gunner is a five line poem by randall jarrell published in 1945.
Most ball turret gunners were chosen because of their short height. How does all the war and death in the title work with the poem s first line. From my mother s sleep i fell into the state and i hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Single issue magazine january 1 1976 by john.
Does it conflict with anything any word in. Ball turret gunners did not carry their chest pack chutes inside the turret with them due to cramped conditions. Irving author see all formats and editions hide other formats and editions. Jenny and the ball turret gunner in playboy.
From my mother s sleep i fell into the state and i hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.