Veterans Day Remembrance: The Ball Turret Gunner

On Veterans Day we remember from WWII the hazards faced by the young men who became our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. For example, the 8th Air Force suffered over 26,000 dead compared to the Marine Corps losing nearly 20,000 killed in the Pacific. Their bombers were mainly crewed by teenagers and men in their early twenties, but of all crew members the ball turret gunner confronted the most dismal fate.

The emerging certainty the United States would be drawn into WW II promoted creation of an autonomous Army Air Force. Until the war in Europe began, dominate Army doctrine gave the air corps no mission beyond supporting the ground forces though the prototype for the B-17 began life in the mid-30’s. In opposition to this entrenched position, Giulio Douhet, an Italian general, and air power theorist, maintained air power could shatter civilian moral and elicit demands to surrender by destroying a country’s vital centers. Now air power advocates fought and won the Pentagon battle for the authority to prove the theory that bombers could win wars.

The instruments for the American initiative in Europe were the B-24 Liberator and B-17 Flying Fortress bombers which carried 10-13 .50cal machine guns for defense and the Norden bombsight for precision daylight attack. Under combat conditions, peacetime bombing accuracy was never realized. The bombers also suffered horrendous losses until a more robust P-51 Mustang significantly reduced losses by escorting them all the way to and from the target.

Now granted a lot of the men ended up as prisoners of war, but one historian noted that Kamikaze squadrons had a lessor casualty rate until fighter escorts could accompany bombers throughout the mission. Completing 25 missions was so extraordinary in 1942 and 1943, that the aircraft and crew of the Memphis Belle returned to the United States to sell war bonds.

The situation of the man operating the two machine guns on the belly of these aircraft is described by Gregory Freeman in his book The Forgotten 500.

“Nobody really wanted to be in a ball turret. This Plexiglas ball hanging from the bottom of the bomber was one of America’s latest innovations in air warfare. An ingenious piece of machinery built by the Sperry Corporation; the ball turret was a heavily armed bubble just big enough to hold a grown man – but only on the small side. It had room for the gunner and its two fifty-caliber machine guns – and little else. The extremely cramped quarters meant that the gunner was the only crew member on a bomber who did not wear a parachute during a mission. Provided the hoist worked, he was left sitting up in the main part of the plane, where he would have to go to get it and put it on before escaping with the rest of the crew. [Clare] Musgrove always told his students: ‘Stow your chute where you can find it in a hurry. You won’t have much time’.”

“The ball turret was not a place for the claustrophobic. It was a tiny space, though it had a great view of the scenery below – or the fighter plane coming up to kill you. The entire unit rotated around in a circle and also up and down, so that the gunner could fire on planes coming from any direction. Being suspended underneath the plane gave the gunner a sensation of flying free, and that often meant that the attacking fighter seemed to be going after him personally rather than trying to shoot down the bomber itself. Everyone on the plane was riding an adrenaline surge during a fighter attack, but none more so than the ball turret gunner who was furiously firing his fifty – caliber machine guns at the German plane trying to kill him in his little glass bubble.”

“The ball turret gunner sat curled up in a fetal position, swiveling the entire turret as he aimed the two guns. As he moved the turret quickly to find attacking planes and then follow them with his guns, the gunner could be in any position from lying on his back to standing on his feet. The gunner sat between the guns, his feet in stirrups positioned on either side of a thirteen-inch-diameter window in front, his knees up around his ears and very little room for moving anything but his hands. His flight suit provided the only padding for comfort.”

“An optical gunsight hung in front of his face, and a pedal under his left foot adjusted a reticule on the gunsight glass. When the target was framed in the sight, the gunner knew the range was correct and he let fly with the machine guns, pushing down one of the two firing buttons located on the wooden handles that controlled the movement of the ball. Shell casings were ejected through a port just below the gun barrels, pouring out as fast as the beads of sweat on the gunner’s face. The plane carried two 150 round belts of ammunition per gun for the ball turret and fed them down from boxes mounted on either side of the hoist.”

The ball turret in the B-24, which Musgrove flew, could be electrically raised and lowered, and had to be raised for landing. The B-17 bombers had sufficient ground clearance if the landing gear functioned, but in an emergency the hand crank could reposition the turret from inside the aircraft fuselage and allow the gunner to exit, and hopefully in time to grab his parachute if he had to exit a stricken aircraft. Musgrove thought this was a great improvement over the B-17 design because no one wanted to be trapped in a ball turret. There was no way to exit the B-17 or B-24 turret without raising it into the fuselage of the plane, so a turret that could not be retracted could become a deathtrap for the gunner. They had all heard stories of gunners who were trapped in their glass bubbles when battle damage resulted in a crash. Musgrove said,

“It was every ball turret gunner’s nightmare, and it became a horrifying reality for some. If the gunner was already dead in the turret and it could not be retracted into the plane, the crew sometimes would jettison the whole apparatus, because the plane was not designed to land with the ball turret hanging underneath. But if the gunner was alive, they would have to tell him that they had no choice but to put the plane down eventually. The ball turret gunner had a long time to contemplate his fate, maybe to say good-bye on the intercom to his crewmates, as the damaged plane limped back to the base or looked for a field in which to crash. All he could do was sit in the glass bubble like a helpless fetus in the womb, watching the ground come closer and closer. When the plane landed, the ball turret was often scraped off the belly, taking the gunner with it. This problem occurred with the B-24. There was sufficient clearance with the B-17 for the turret to be in the lowered position, if the plane could land with the wheels down.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Air_Forces#Army_Air_Forces_created

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=sperry+ball+turret&qpvt=sperry+ball+turret&FORM=IGRE

I remember the movie, but not the TV show. It has been a while since I watched the movie, but this one part of the B-17’s returning from a mission stays with me. It was made in 1949 so all the planes and pilots should have been surplus. This one guy must have been a frustrated fighter pilot, because he was higher up, turned much more vertical, swooped down to the runway, and leveled out just in time.

Thank you for the information on the Marauder.

My cousin has done extensive research on the B-26 and shared some of that information with us, including information about my uncle's life. None of this was discussed when we were growing up - I think it was still too painful and this was years and decades after the war was over.

My uncle was killed in Europe transporting officers to North Africa according to what we know.

My dad was able to see a Marauder (I believe in Washington DC) before he died. My sister said he broke down when he saw it (he was the kid brother).

We were told at the air museum in Colorado Springs that there is one Marauder that is operational and two that are being worked on. I hope to see one at some point.

I am working on getting possession of my uncle's Purple Heart - it is currently with an aunt by marriage who is 90 and there are no heirs after she dies - she seems not to want to give it to me, I'd like to pass it down to my son and grandchildren - whom I've been educating about my uncle. These stories should be passed down in families.

Here is a photo of my uncle and his crew, taken in Louisiana:

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