[packrat35]

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.

[M1903A1]

Didn’t ball turret gunners actually have one of the highest survival rates among bomber crews?

[PeterPrinciple]

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

[PeterPrinciple]

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/gunner-fell-22000-feet-without-a-parachute-and-survived.html

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

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.

[mabarker1]

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.

[Fester Chugabrew]

The noise and motion must have been terribly intense, to say the least.

[M Kehoe]

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

[dljordan]

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.

[PROCON]

Thanks for sharing!

[Kartographer]

https://www.nbc.com/amazing-stories/video/the-mission/2909096

The Mission
A courageous young World War II gunner and aspiring cartoonist, trapped in the belly gun of a B-17 aircraft with the landing gear destroyed, has only his imagination as a force that might be able to save him.

Director
Steven Spielberg
Writers
Steven Spielberg(story)Joshua BrandJohn Falsey
Stars
Kevin CostnerCasey SiemaszkoKiefer Sutherland

[MomwithHope]

bump or later reading father in law was a B24 pilot