Actual Nose Art panel from crashed B-17 at St. Nazaire, France – 03 January 1943 [Via]. "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" is a five-line poem by Randall Jarrell published in 1945. save. This is clearly something that wartime censors would have edited out. best . After the war, Magee did not discuss his ordeal or his survival story with anyone. Ball turret gunner’s tale It was their second mission in “Berlin Special,” a B-17 “Flying Fortress.” Their four-engine bomber was part of the 92nd Bomb Group, 407th Squadron of the 8th Air Force flying out of an airbase near Podington, a tiny farm village some 40-miles northwest of London during World War II. On the 23rd of September 1995 Alan E. Magee, accompanied by his wife Helen, returned to St Nazaire to take part in a ceremony sponsored by French citizens, dedicating a memorial to his seven fellow crewmen killed in the crash of Snap! Ball Turret Gunner. The ball turret job can be exciting. It was common knowledge among soldiers that the B-17 ball turret gunners had a very high casualty rate. Also to escape from the turret there were any amount of things necessary before one could leave. Magee was 5-foot-7 and could barely fit into the small space inside the turret. I suspect it was the placebo effect - it looks good and it is reassuring to think that Rob will shoot down any nasty fighter that comes along. Directed by Steven Spielberg. report. Magee’s survival story has featured in many magazines and is considered one of the most miraculous survivals of WWII. The ball turret gunner was usually the shortest crewmember. The gunner entered the ball turret via a door at its rear, which also served as an emergency exit in case of trouble. No surprise, it is selling Miller’s book here. Permanently fixed and unable to be retracted, there was no hiding from enemy attack. Still, it looks plausible to me as a way of death that the Air Force would prefer to list as “combat death”. It was the job of the ball turret gunner, armed with a pair of .50-caliber machine guns, to defend the aircraft from attacks below. Magee had to jump out of it to escape certain death. It is about the death of a gunner in a Sperry ball turret on a World War II American bomber aircraft. in the forest at La Baule Escoublac on Jan. 3, 1943. I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. The ball turret gunner has not had a living instant to achieve the self-recognition celebrated by Aries or Yeats's Major Gregory. . The US 8th Air Force, which flew daylight missions over Europe, had a 19% death rate, if you survived being shot down, you had a 17% chance of become a POW. The ball turret had lost all power, so to get out he had to manually retract the ball using a hand crank. My question is: Were the gunners on bombers actually useful, or did they serve the purpose of providing the crews with the belief that they were protected from high-speed interceptors? His face was about 30 inches from this panel, and suspended in between was the optical display of the computing gunsight. Alan E. Magee poses for the camera, halfway into the tight confines of the ball turret of a B-17 Flying Fortress. "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" is one of the earliest of post-modern elegies of a type that might well be termed "peculiar monodies." The ball turret gunner would be hunched, legs bent, with his feet in stirrups on each side of the 13 inch diameter armored glass panel. Military | Technical Sergeant | Top Turret Gunner - engineer | 389th Bomb Group On a mission to Erkner Berlin on 8 Mar 1944, B-24J #42-99975 'The Latrine Rumor' made a forced landing near Wartena, Holland hitting a windmill that crushed the nose section. The gears that rotated the ball to put the gunner in position to … Google “air gunner victory” for some cites. Once the aircraft was in enemy territory the ball was rotated so that the door was in the floor of the plane. Magee lived another 61 years after his fall during WWII and died of kidney failure and complications from a stroke. Alan Magee received the Air Medal for meritorious service and the Purple Heart for his achievements in the war. Three months before being shot down, the original crew assigned to the B-17F Snap! Appears that this was done to keep drag down since you don’t need a large turret to fit both gunner and guns. So this undated photo shows what looks like a disintegrating turret, and the purported victim is still anonymous. Alan Magee decided to join the US Army after Japanese attacked the American fleet at  Pearl Harbor. Armed with two 50-caliber machine guns and capable of rotating 360 degrees, the ball turret gunner was responsible for protecting the otherwise-exposed underbelly of the flying fortress. 43-37995 crash landed with one fatality. How did the optics work on remote turrets? Saved by Julie Gault. ), This guy made it out just in time for his chute to open effectively. He was 24, and was one of the ten-man crew of the B-17 bomber. Magee plunged almost 22,000 feet, falling unconscious before crashing into the roof of the St Nazaire railway station. My first thought is unbolting a radio-they were huge, my Father had one for his ham radio hobby-and two or three guys smashing the plexiglass with it. A crewman poses with the Sperry ball turret of a Royal Air Force B-24, Burma, c.1943-1945. Recommended Posts. Air gunners could and did shoot down fighter planes. 11 comments. Sergeant Smith was a ball turret gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress on his first combat mission. Saved from ww2incolor.com. One fellow gunner had his turret cut off by the wing of another plane during a mission. The fighters never had the range of the bombers. On August 4, 1944, Douglas A-20G-30-DO Havoc (SN 43-9502) of the 644th Bomb Squadron, 410th Bomb Group, 9th Air Force, receives a direct flak hit in the tail section, completely severing it whilst on a mission to Rouen, France. The ball turret on a B-17 didn’t retract. Crackle! The ball turret gunner was crushed to death when a mechanical malfunction trapped him inside his plastic cage and a damaged electrical system made it impossible to lower the plane’s wheels. The ball turret gunner was crushed to death when a mechanical malfunction trapped him inside his plastic cage and a damaged electrical system made it impossible to lower the plane’s wheels. The ball turret was a feature of the bomber aircraft, a B-17 or B-24, made of plexiglass and set into the belly of the plane. Who was this gunner? They were useful. 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. He is buried in San Angelo, Texas. The US Army lost 75 airmen, along with 7 planes, while 47 planes were badly damaged. A made-for-TV drama from the 1980's was built around that scenario, but it was by and large fictional. Prev; 1; 2; Next; Page 2 of 2 . The Ball Turret Gunner from B17 42-31377 Pot O´Gold crashed on 22 FEB 1944, tells in BALL TURRET about his job. That’s why they had to take Iwo Jima so the fighters had a place to take off from that would let them escort the bombers all the way into Japan. Cascabel Cascabel New Members; 13 posts; Posted September 29, 2012. Magee had no idea how to control the plane and saw a small opening,  which he quickly jumped through. It was cramped and very loud when the guns began to fire. no one knows… I’m sure there were bomber veterans who were haunted by leaving a ball turret gunner behind. This thread is archived. Pop! The ball turret gunner was on the underside of the plane and the gunner had to wait until the aircraft was airborne before opening the hatch to get into it. Source: 303rd BG  [Via]. The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner . But he was not aware that he had jumped in a 4-mile drop without his parachute. A few thousand planes are not going to be recalled for safety issues. Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled. One would think that the crew could break the plexiglass and get the guy out. In total, there were 85 B-17s involved in the raid, along with some fighter planes escorting them. The ball turret on the B-17 had to rotate to the vertical position to allow the hatch to be opened into the plane for exit during flight. Did you look up how a ball turret worked? Here’s one potential remedy…[link to video on Vimeo]. Crushed ball turret gunner. hide. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. See ... the person inside the turret would be crushed to death. Remembering his friend and comrade, he said that Magee was a great friend and a kind human being. *The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner [Via]. Here’s an old discussion on a veteran’s forum. People die. (I personally interviewed him many times and corroborated his story with other sources.) Jul 19, 2014 - B-17 Ball Turret Gunner Crushed | Turret Gunner on B-17. S/Sgt. Sort by. It wasn’t just early on. The reason: First, the ball turret gunner did NOT enter the turret until the aircraft was approaching the point where fighter resistance was expected. Fun Fact: American poet Randall Jarrell wrote a five-line poem called “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” which was published in 1945. Then too, if it was an issue, or even widely believed contemporary myth, I wonder why nobody mentions gunners or crews having field expedient escape tools to hand? There has to be more details out there other than Andy Rooney’s accounts and anecdotal information. Early on, the bombers had greater range than their escorting fighters and, on deep missions, they had no cover - those guns were all that there was for defense. The Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, website here, could have more of the story behind its photo. Need facts about a B-17 ball turret gunner who died in a belly landing. Followers 1. I believe it happened a number of times. The gunner could enter the turret from inside the plane by having the turret rotated until the door opening faced the interior of the plane. I have a question for the forum members to ponder. level 1. Magee was 5-foot-7 and could barely fit into the small space inside the turret. … It also kept the gunners inside the pressurized cabin, which the earlier bombers did not have. This was difficult and excruciatingly slow when you’re the last person left on the plane and it’s losing altitude quickly. (The ball turret is too cramped to wear a chute. The American writer Randall Jarrell published "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" in 1945, the final year of World War II. When he regained consciousness, as the Germans were taking him to hospital, he exclaimed, ‘Thank God I am alive.” Magee once told his friend that the Germans had great respect for those who survived miraculously. Dec 27, 2015 - B-17 Ball Turret Gunner Crushed | Dow Field, Bangor, Maine 1942 - Turret gunner aboard B-17 When his bomber came under fire from German anti-aircraft guns, he ran out of options. By renfield, September 26, 2012 in MILITARY AIRCRAFT & AVIATION. I can’t imagine that the Air Force would subject the family with the knowledge that their loved one died such a gruesome death. From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. This thread brings remote turrets to mind. 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 … He, as well as other bomber veterans, told me stories of incidents in which the ball turret gunner died because he couldn’t get out in time. The ball-turrer gunner was one of the most dangerous positions to have on a B-17. This happened while Andy Rooney was in England reporting a news story. It landed in a haystack and he only scored some broken ribs. Randall Jarrell, 1914 - 1965. Ball Turret Gunners on B-17 bombers were protected only by a glass bubble jutting out from the bowels of the plane. Crushed ball turret gunner. On the show World War 2 in HD The Air War... Andy Rooney tells the story of a B-17 ball turret gunner traped in the turret and crushed to death when the plane was forced to make a wheels up landing. Turret Gunner on B-17 – Royalty Free World War 2 Images - WW2inColor.com. There were over 3,500 bullet and shrapnel holes. No room for parachute, another hatch added weight and would increase survival by .001% Here’s an article on the B-29 superfortress’s remote gun turrets. Based on a little quick reading the gunsight was adjusted by turning a control so that an aiming circle matched the wingspan of the incoming fighter. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, It wasn’t easy what they had to go through. The gun turrets themselves were relatively nearby and they were also fairly low profile. And even if it didn’t, as long as the (tricycle) gear extended and the pilot didn’t flare too much, he’d be fine. The B-17 was a taildragger, and if any of the three wheels wasn’t down and the ball turret was, then the plane would land on the ball turret. He was considered a perfect fit for the B-17’s ball turret. I don’t know if the tales of a ball turret gunner being trapped while the plane actually landed on a runway are true or apocryphal, but the gunners definitely got trapped in those things and sometimes went down with the plane. He felt a need to enlist in the Army and defend his country. Crackle! Ranked among the luckiest people in the world, Alan E. Magee survived a free fall of almost four miles from a B-17 bomber during a bombing raid in WWII. A ball-turret gunner, sits in his position on a B-17 "Flying Fortress" shortly before take off for a mission into Germany, 1943. He felt a need to enlist in the Army and defend his country. With Kevin Costner, Casey Siemaszko, Kiefer Sutherland, J.J. Cohen. [Via]. http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/12001. How many Ball Turret Gunners died in World War II? Fellow gunner had his turret cut off by the shortest crewmember that a crew would leave the ball was so. The floor of the ball turret features in the Army and defend his.! 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