Hands like shovels. The ball turret gunner, on the other hand, could see the rest of the ships in the formation, the bombs as they descended on the enemy and, on a clear day, the bombs as they detonated on the enemy. His bomber was spinning mid-air and spiralling towards the ground. Not according to this study http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwii/woundblstcs/chapter9.htm It found waist gunners had the most but there were 2. It wasn’t easy what they had to go through. Tail gunners suffered the highest casualties because that is the direction enemy fighters would most often come from. The Ball Turret Gunner from B17 42-31377 Pot O´Gold crashed on 22 FEB 1944, tells in BALL TURRET about his job. It is about the death of a gunner in a Sperry ball turret on a World War II American bomber aircraft. A reflector sight was hung from the top of the turret, positioned roughly between the gunner's feet. It was common knowledge among soldiers that the B-17 ball turret gunners had a very high casualty rate. 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 crewman poses with the Sperry ball turret of a Royal Air Force B-24, Burma, c.1943-1945, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Development of Aircraft Gun Turrets in the AAF, 1917-1944, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ball_turret&oldid=965294547, Articles lacking sources from September 2019, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles that may contain original research from July 2016, All articles that may contain original research, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from July 2016, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, In "The Mission," a 1985 episode of the television series, This page was last edited on 30 June 2020, at 14:17. Or maybe he knew the dangers of singing up for the army but had no idea that he would have to see death so quickly. The ball turret was a hellish place to be. Then the crank to put him back up didn't work," Charlotte said. 8th Air Force ball turret (ventral) gunners and pilots had the highest casualty rates. The bomber took a couple of nasty blows on its wing and engine; it started spiralling towards the ground, and was spinning at a very high speed. 66 years after the crash he still remembers his part of World War II. Britannic: A Century After Being Lost to the Waves, Opened to Divers, The 10,000 room German WW2 resort complex never had a single guest, now luxury beachfront Condos, The “Red Zone” In France Is So Dangerous that 100 Years After WWI It Is Still A No-Go Area. Pop! Due to scheduling and additional training received by some members of Frankâs crew, he flew his first combat mission as a ball turret gunner with the Lt Dow C. Pruitt crew on April 18, 1944. There was no room inside for a parachute, which was left in the cabin above 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. Among the earlier designs was the Martin 250SH bow turret of the PBM-3 twin-engined patrol flying boat which had many points of similarity in design and action. The ball turret ended up proving to be the safest position in a B17. The ball turret gunner was usually the shortest crewmember. The ball turret gunner has not had a living instant to achieve the self-recognition celebrated by Aries or Yeats's Major Gregory. [POEM] The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell. from mortar and bricklaying. He felt a need to enlist in the Army and defend his country. Like a noose of the free. With the E model, the top twin guns were moved directly behind the cockpit with the Bendix powered turret, which was manned by the Flt Eng. Magee stayed in various German camps as a Prisoner of War. Ball turrets appeared in the nose and tail as well as the nose of the final series B-24. Ball Turret Gunner: Staff Sergeant William H. Cassiday, 32346219, New York – Killed in Action Radio Operator: Staff Sergeant Ralph J. Leffelman, 19112019, Washington – Killed in Action Waist Gunner: Staff Sergeant James D. Houtchens, 37483248, Nebraska – Killed in Action Since this turret is of the ball type, the gunner moves with his guns and sight in elevation and azimuth by means of control handles. After the war, Magee did not discuss his ordeal or his survival story with anyone. The Sperry ball turret, meant for ventral defense needs on aircraft, was used on both the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator as well as the United States Navy's Liberator, the PB4Y. To remedy that, the front end of the cover was "slotted". A glimmering of conscious awareness comes to him, if at all, only after the moment of death. Our accents thick. The ball turret was originally a "bathtub" position facing rearward only - again by the D model it had evolved into twin .50s. [Via]. Two of the engines of the B-17 were stopped, about 3,000 pounds of dead weight hanging from the wings. The gears that rotated the ball to put the gunner in position to … To get in the turret the gunner would manually crank the guns straight down after take off. According to an article in Snopes regarded a Reagan anecdote, there is a story by Andy Rooney(in his book “My War”) about a stuck ball-turret gunner who was crushed when his B-17 had to belly land. The name arose from the turret's spherical housing. This happened while Andy Rooney was in England reporting a news story. In the TV series Season 1, Episode 6 there is a very similar story of the Ball Turret gunner being trapped in his turret after FLAK damage with the real possibility of being crushed upon landing due to landing gear damage as well. 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