Posted on 11/10/2021 3:43:39 PM PST by Retain Mike
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
BY RANDALL JARRELL
From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
Didn’t ball turret gunners actually have one of the highest survival rates among bomber crews?
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
BY RANDALL JARRELL
From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57860/the-death-of-the-ball-turret-gunner
There was a story on the now AHC about a ball gunner saying bye to his fellow crew just before touchdown on a belly landing.
My Father in Law was a Ball Turret Gunner in the European Theatre. He was shot up, and lost 1 lung and other more minor injuries and finished His hitch at a Desk Job. He passed away before I came into the Family so I never had the opportunity to talk with Him.
God Bless You, Robert.
The noise and motion must have been terribly intense, to say the least.
Amen
B-17 ball turret gunner Staff Sgt Maynard “Snuffy” Smith received the Medal of Honor for action on May 1, 1943. He was the first enlisted member of the USAAF to get the MOH.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynard_Harrison_Smith
Nasty position to be in on a 17.
One time when a B24 lost a landing gear and an engine, the ball gunner, knowing he was toast, drew a cartoon of the crippled B24 with two wheels before it landed and he and the crew landed safely.
Twilight Zone?
5.56mm
Steven Spielberg’s “Amazing Stories.”
I provided ground support for Aluminum Overcast at an airshow. I got to tour the inside of it. those WWII movies that show all that space inside? Bullshit! I looked at the rear gunners little bicycle seat and the tunnel to get in there and I thought, NO WAY! Big freakin’ stones!
Oh, they had the original pilot there. God bless him.
A member of the Greatest Generation.
Thanks.
5.56mm
FTS...I’m too big and wouldn’t fit.
Thanks for sharing!
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