# Story Of Heroism - The trapped belly turret gunner



## parsifal (Aug 12, 2011)

I was watching a program call "Lost Documentaries Of WWII, that showed a lot of colour and colourised vision of the 8th AF. It was a great doco, more about the personal experiences of the flyers, both US and german. The heroism really moved me to be honest.

There was one story about a ball gunner stuck in the turret alive. The B-17 was going down, the gear was stuck. There was a re-creation of the frantic discussion between the pilot of this bird and the tower...what to do about the poor devil in the turret. They never did say what happened, and i found myself hoping against hope that he got out alive. I know that he wouldnt have...stuck in the belly ball turret with no wheels is going to end just one way, but I was mostly saddened for the poor pilot who at maybe 22 would have to kill one man to try and save the rest of the crew.

What do you say to that guy. How do you console him.

The plane I think was from either the 92nd or the 100BG and the accident happened some time in the latter part of 1943, perhaps in one of the Schweinfurt Raids. 

I was wondering if anyone had heard of this story, and what happened to that plane, the gunner and the rest of the crew.

Its strange how one story about one man can move us to remember the debt we can never repay

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## Ratsel (Aug 12, 2011)

They showed something similar on the History Channel, WWII in HD. They B-17 made it back to the airfield after a raid on Berlin. The crew member in the lower turret was trapped. Wheels didn't lower. Engine(s) failing, had no choise but to put her down. He was the only casualty.


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## Glider (Aug 12, 2011)

Its one of those things that must have happened a number of times that people dont often talk about. Others I have read about is abandoning a ship knowing that people are alive and trapped inside the ship, submarines that were caught on the bottom and couldn't get up, waiting for the air to run out, the list if you think of it is endless.


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## danjama (Aug 12, 2011)

As heart wrenching as these memories are, I have to wonder why they didn't use the manual wheel crank, or try shutting down other systems to coax back hydrolic power or something. Smash the damn turret with an extinguisher or aim a .50 at it.  

I wonder how you tell a man he is about to die a violent death.


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## parsifal (Aug 12, 2011)

The doco said the ball races that allowed the turret to rotate were hit by flak fragments and jammed in a position that would not allow the gunner to get out. Still, I wondered pretty much the same as you. As the gunner I would prefer to be shot than mangled by the weight of the aircraft as it came down. But its the pilot that I think about....how could he live with that? Thank god I have never had to make that decision.....


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## stona (Aug 12, 2011)

I know that this story was originally written by Andy Rooney who was a correspondent for "Stars and Stripes". He was at the airfield when the incident occurred.
Rooney recalled, “I was there when they came back from a raid deep in Germany, and one of the pilots radioed in that he was going to have to make an emergency landing. He had only two engines left and his hydraulic system was gone. He couldn’t lower the wheels and there was something even worse. The ball turret gunner was trapped in the plastic bubble beneath the belly of the bomber.
Later I talked with the crewmen who survived that landing. Their friend in the ball turret had been calm, they said. They had talked to him. He knew what they had to do. He understood. The B-17 slammed down on its belly and onto the ball turret with their comrade trapped inside.”
Awful,just awful. I know I have some more details somewhere which I'll post if I find them.
Steve


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## FLYBOYJ (Aug 12, 2011)

I'd like to know more about this story guys as it sounds a little fishy to me. The ball turret was a very heavy and thick chunk of hardware with very thick armored glass and I believe aluminum forging making up the structure of the turret. I believe there have been photos of B-17s bellied in with the turret stuck and it was either pushed into the fuselage in one piece or it broke the back of the aircraft upon hitting the ground.

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## Ratsel (Aug 12, 2011)

on History Channel's WWII in HD it should it in clear full colour, the turret was crushed and peeled back. very sobbering to see.


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## pbfoot (Aug 12, 2011)

I realize this sliightly off topic but was it not possible to jettison the ball turret?


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## FLYBOYJ (Aug 12, 2011)

Ratsel said:


> on History Channel's WWII in HD it should it in clear full colour, the turret was crushed and peeled back. very sobbering to see.


 Interesting, I'd like to know more about it and see if a name and crew could be tied to the story.



pbfoot said:


> I realize this sliightly off topic but was it not possible to jettison the ball turret?


It can, but from I remember it had to be placed in a level position and one half of the turret fell away.

found this discussion for what its worth...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070403103358AA8WEHh


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## Ratsel (Aug 12, 2011)

it was featured in this episode: 
_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_79QfATtEU_


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## tyrodtom (Aug 12, 2011)

The turret could be dropped, but it was about 20 minutes work with a cresent wrench and hammer. It was standard procedure to drop the turret if you had to belly land. But of course you had to have the time to do it. If it was in the right position the turret could be directly exited, but since very few gunners could fit in it even with a chest chute, that meant they had to position the turret to enter the interior of the aircraft, then get their chute on.
If the turret couldn't be moved to the proper exit position, and the gunner was like most, not wearing a parachute, you had a bad situation. As sturdy as that turret may have been, it couldn't withstand the stress of a 40,000 +lb. aircraft using it as a landing skid.


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## stona (Aug 12, 2011)

pbfoot said:


> I realize this sliightly off topic but was it not possible to jettison the ball turret?



It was possible but not a simple operation. The crew were expected to retrieve the gunsight before losing the turret.

There are a lot of inaccuracies in that thread interpreting the poem. Statistically the ball turret was the safest place to be though I wouldn't fancy it. What a position to spend several hours in.

Here is the procedure,

Prodeedure for Removing the Ball Turret. 
Point guns aft and down. Remove the four bolts from the azimuth gear case and remove the case. 
Remove the four safety hangers with a socket wrench. If a wrench is not available, break the hangers with a hammer. 
Remove the twelve yoke connection bolts. The turret will now be free, but may hang momentarily on the fire cut off cam. A swift kick on the aft end of ball will dislodge it from the cam. It is recommended that, although not absolutely necessary, to disconnect the electrical plug and oxygen line prior to removing the twelve yoke nuts. 
It is recommended that the sight be salvaged if time permits. 

Proceed as follows : 
Enter turret and disconnect the flexible shaft from the sight. 
Remove the mounting pin from the sight and disconnect the electrical plug. The sight is now free. 
Remove sight and drop turret. The entire proceedure takes about 40 minutes. 

The above is from the B-17 gunners' file furnished by James S. Peters Sr. T/Sgt B-17 Flt Engr, 27 missions 99 BG, 348BS, 5th Wing, 15th AAF Tortorella, (Foggia#2), Italy,12/03/44-06/19/45 M/Sgt USAF (Retired) 
He doesn't remember any of the tools mentioned being on board!

Steve


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## FLYBOYJ (Aug 12, 2011)

tyrodtom said:


> As sturdy as that turret may have been, it couldn't withstand the stress of a 40,000 +lb. aircraft using it as a landing skid.


That's questionable Tom. Many years ago I worked at a salvage company and we had 3 Sperry turrets. We made scaffolding for one and got it to work; it was complete minus the guns. It was a big heavy component. The components that supported the turret were only as strong as the structure built around it and if you managed to put 40K worth of stress on it seemed the supporting structure would fail before the turret. If I remember correctly the turret position was right next to an assembly mating bulkhead which meant if that area was subjected to any major force, the plane would come apart there.

We joked about being crushed in the turret and it was on that day were an old B-17 crew member happened to be in the store and told us that he seen B-17s belly land with the turret extended and break the middle of the fuselage. I don't remember him talking about anyone being inside it during the crash. Since first hearing about this I believe there have been several books mentioning the same thing. I'd have to check the sources.

I'm unable to play that You Tube clip at work but would be interested in specifically what it had to say.


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## tyrodtom (Aug 12, 2011)

Manned it was supposed to weigh 1200 lbs, it was a sturdy piece of equipment. That's why they wanted it dropped if you had to bellyland. 

But what would the possibilities be that someone could survive in it while that part of the aircraft comes apart around him?


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## Airframes (Aug 12, 2011)

You're right Joe; the turret itself was a substantial piece of hardware, but it was the supporting yoke and trunnions, fitted at the fuselage joint, which broke the back of the aircraft during a belly landing with the turret still in place. The ball turret gunner was not supposed to occupy the turret during take off or landing.
The attached pics show a ball turret removed form the B17G at Duxford, giving some idea of the bulk of the structure, without the suspension yoke. The B&W pic shows a turret being jettisoned over the sea from B17 'Spot Remover' of the 390th BG.


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## Ratsel (Aug 12, 2011)

danjama said:


> As heart wrenching as these memories are, I have to wonder why they didn't use the manual wheel crank, or try shutting down other systems to coax back hydrolic power or something. Smash the damn turret with an extinguisher or aim a .50 at it.
> 
> I wonder how you tell a man he is about to die a violent death.


in the ball the elevation clutch had to be disengaged to rotate the turret manualy...and it would normally be done by the right waist gunner, but, either waist gunner could disengage the manual clutch, to rotate the turret to the verical position for the ball gunner to exit the ball turret.....however, if the turret was damaged in such a way to preclude ANY movement of the ball turret, it would have been impossible for the ball gunner to survive, if he did not have his chute in the turret with him. theoretically a gunner could open his back rest/door and tumble out IF he could wear a parachute.

I remember reading about the B-17 'Aluminum Overcast' where her gear collapsed at sent the turret almost through the top.

statistically the safest person on a -17 was the lower turret gunner, the least safe was the pilot/tailgunner. Bailing out of a 17 however the lower turret gunner had the greatest chance of dying.

the youtube link just shows which episode the B-17 was in. if you either buy the DVD or wait for a repeat of the show.

*I found this:*
black 'B' in a white triangle underneath 'Yellow 231613' under that Yellow 'N'. Ball turret gunner was killed due to belly landing.


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## stona (Aug 13, 2011)

tyrodtom said:


> Manned it was supposed to weigh 1200 lbs, it was a sturdy piece of equipment. That's why they wanted it dropped if you had to bellyland.



Not just for a belly landing. It could be jettisoned to lighten an aircraft in an emergency,along with just about everything else that wasn't nailed down.
The 15th Air Force B-17s dropped a lot of ball turrets as they staggered back over the Alps.
There is a story that the Italians had acquired a P-38 which would fly,one airscrew feathered, with a B-17 in trouble whilst it jettisoned it's guns,ammunition and anything else to lighten the load.

From the 5th Wing History of Aircraft Assigned: 

42-30307 BONNIE SUE Assigned 1 Jul 43. MIA 11 Aug 43...SHOT DOWN BY ENEMY P-38. 
The enemy P-38 (with one propeller feathered)... would approach a lone aircraft attempting to return and await the jettisoning of all loose equipment..anything to reduce weight...MGs, ammo, all unnessary radios, whatever was disposable....and when the guns and ammo were overboard, he would unfeather the propeller and attack the by then helpless aircraft. It was determined after the loss of several bombers, that the pilot was an Italian fighting for the Germans. 

This may have been the P-38 that landed by mistake at Capoterra. The Italian pilot was probably Col.Angelo Tondi though the only claim I have seen by him,flying the P-38, was for a B-24 off the Anzio coast.






Steve


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## FLYBOYJ (Aug 13, 2011)

Great info guys


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## danjama (Aug 13, 2011)

Thanks for the information Ratsel.

Any ideas why they wouldn't have tried to lower the landing gear manually, if the turret was indeed a lost cause?

As has been said, the turret gunner would normally leave the turret as soon as permitted (no fighters, over the channel), so i'm thinking that even if he was stuck, they would have found that out early enough to allow time to find a solution. Therefore, it's almost impossible that they found out at the last moment and could not attempt to lower gear manually.


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## tyrodtom (Aug 13, 2011)

Some landing gears have a up lock that keeps the landing gear from dropping just due to gravity. Don't forget a B-17s landing gear is about 10 ft. away from the fuselage out under the inboard engines. You're not going to know if the landing gear will or will not come down until you try it, and you're not going to try it till you need it, because it would reduce your speed if it dropped early. With the hydraulic system inop, you wouldn't be able to get it back up. If the locks won't release, manual over ride on the gear, if they had it, would do no good. 
The belly turret is armored, so breaking into it to get the gunner out, if possible, would take a lot of time. They could have very well been in a low fuel situation, almost out of fuel, and out of time.


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## danjama (Aug 13, 2011)

tyrodtom said:


> Some landing gears have a up lock that keeps the landing gear from dropping just due to gravity. Don't forget a B-17s landing gear is about 10 ft. away from the fuselage out under the inboard engines. You're not going to know if the landing gear will or will not come down until you try it, and you're not going to try it till you need it, because it would reduce your speed if it dropped early. With the hydraulic system inop, you wouldn't be able to get it back up. If the locks won't release, manual over ride on the gear, if they had it, would do no good.
> The belly turret is armored, so breaking into it to get the gunner out, if possible, would take a lot of time. They could have very well been in a low fuel situation, almost out of fuel, and out of time.



Very good points, that I hadn't considered. What an evil turn of events to be in that situation where all options are exhausted, and you are forced to kill your friend and comerade. Sobering thought.


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## Ratsel (Aug 13, 2011)

Huh? German AAA/Flak/ or fighters killed him, not the B-17 pilot/crew. My guess is that they made heroic efforts to try and save their fellow crewman. Also, we can't say whether or not he had a parachute.. or even if he could open the door.


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## TheMustangRider (Aug 14, 2011)

Torn between the decisions of sacrificing one man in return for the survival of the rest of the crew was an excruciating experience that more than one pilot was forced to endure during the war.

After being damaged by flak during the bomb run, Captain Douglas H. Buskey, pilot of a B-17 from the 379th BG found out that both bomb bay doors were unable to be closed and with one engine out and another damaged it was crucial for the crew to get them closed while still being in enemy territory.
After the pilot ordered someone to try and get the doors closed, the right waist gunner volunteered along with the flight engineer; he disconnected his oxygen system and hook on to a walk-around battle as he entered the bomb bay.
As the engineer was cranking the bomb bay doors closed, he noticed the waist gunner which was on the catwalk, got stuck between the bomb racks; the radio operator attempted to extricate the waist gunner but his oxygen bottle fell trough the partly opened doors and was forced to go back to his position and hook into the plane’s oxygen system.
The left waist gunner came forward and tried unsuccessfully to rescue his friend which had by now fainted due to oxygen starvation, the radio operator came back, tried once more to save the waist gunner but to no avail and had to go back to his position for oxygen.
The radio operator informed the pilot that the waist gunner was still stuck in the bomb bay and unconscious, the B-17 would have to dive quickly to a lower altitude if he was to survive, the pilot with a faltering voice replied “If we leave the formation and try to go it alone to 10,000 ft or lower, we may not make it back to England; German fighters will jump us. It means losing one with the hope that the rest of us will get back”.
As the Flying Fortress approached the airbase, a red flare was fired from the plane alerting ground personnel that a casualty was on board and priority was given to the pilot to land; as the pilot taxied the B-17 to its dispersal area, medics came aboard the stricken bomber, removed the body of the waist gunner and took him away.
As the body was being removed, the navigator Lt. Franklin L. Betz, which is the person recounting the experience, remembers: “At that moment I realized the hardening of a naive airman to combat in the crucible of war had begun”.

When I read stories like this, I too realize that we will never be able to pay what that generation sacrificed for ours.


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## stona (Aug 14, 2011)

According to Rooney the B-17 in question was flying on two engines (could they maintain altitude like that,even if they had lightened their load?) and flew a circuit around the aerodrome for several minutes whilst efforts continued to free the trapped gunner.
A lot of journalists don't allow inconvenient facts to get in the way of a good story but Rooney did not write this up at the time. It appeared later. Rooney will be well known to our U.S.coleagues,he was a contemporary of Pyle,Cronkite,Brokaw and the great Life photographer Margaret Bourke White. He was one of six journalists to fly with the 8th Air force on their first raid to Germany. He may be best known,latterly, for his contributions to "60 minutes", though he has won many awards for his writing. Not exactly a hack. I very much doubt that he made this story up.
Steve


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## parsifal (Aug 14, 2011)

There are so many stories of heroism. I sont think i would have the guts to talk to that trapped gunner, or if I was the pilot, I dont think I could bring the ship in, knowing it will kill one of my crewman. I know......if I didnt 8 other men will die, and not bringing the bird in isnt going to help the gunner, but a decision like that isnt easy


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## armadillomaster (Aug 24, 2011)

A truly hard decision to make, but one that may have saved many.

On both sides Axis and Allies during the war, there were many heroes.


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## parsifal (Aug 24, 2011)

well, for me the story is pretty much confirmed. Stories like this just underline the terrible price paid in that war. I hope the guys involved in that tragedy rest easy now. It puts a lump in my throat just thinking about how that story would have played out

Bravo Zulu guys, enjoy your rest


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## Monkeynuts12 (Feb 24, 2012)

It turns out he actually survived.


_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq9mTbooWyw_


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## barney (Feb 25, 2012)

stona said:


> I know that this story was originally written by Andy Rooney who was a correspondent for "Stars and Stripes". He was at the airfield when the incident occurred.
> Rooney recalled, “I was there when they came back from a raid deep in Germany, and one of the pilots radioed in that he was going to have to make an emergency landing. He had only two engines left and his hydraulic system was gone. He couldn’t lower the wheels and there was something even worse. The ball turret gunner was trapped in the plastic bubble beneath the belly of the bomber.
> Later I talked with the crewmen who survived that landing. Their friend in the ball turret had been calm, they said. They had talked to him. He knew what they had to do. He understood. The B-17 slammed down on its belly and onto the ball turret with their comrade trapped inside.”
> Awful,just awful. I know I have some more details somewhere which I'll post if I find them.
> Steve



The gear on a B-17 is operated by a jack screw driven by an electric motor.


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## stona (Feb 25, 2012)

Rooney was a journalist and a very fine one. He was not an aircraft technician. I quoted him recalling the incident many years later. For whatever reason the crew were unable to lower the gear.
Steve


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## Kryten (Feb 25, 2012)

I have heard this story, was always a bit baffled how the mounting didn't fail and punch the ball up into the fuselage, the weak link here to me should have been the mounting, no doubt the ball would be badly damaged but its construction should have been more resliient than the mounts?


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## FLYBOYJ (Feb 25, 2012)

Kryten said:


> I have heard this story, was always a bit baffled how the mounting didn't fail and punch the ball up into the fuselage, the weak link here to me should have been the mounting, no doubt the ball would be badly damaged *but its construction should have been more resliient than the mounts*?



It is. I've seen ball turrets (see page 1) and they are stronger than their mountings in the aircraft. To be honest I have issues in the way this story has always been presented. I don't believe anyone was killed in this situation from being "crushed." I believe if an individual was stuck inside a ball turret the forces from the crash would probably be the factor for killing the occupant, not the ball failing structurally. It would be like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel (somewhat). I've seen pics of ball turrets destroyed on the ground, usually because they were shot up in the air first by flack. My 2 cents....

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## barney (Feb 26, 2012)

stona said:


> Rooney was a journalist and a very fine one. He was not an aircraft technician. I quoted him recalling the incident many years later. For whatever reason the crew were unable to lower the gear.
> Steve



I'll excuse Rooney but it caught my attention because I knew the B-17, as well as the B-29, were known as electric birds. A Boeing design philosophy it seems. This from memory but I think the the only hydraulics on a B-17 were cowl flaps and brakes.


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## Siegfried (Feb 26, 2012)

barney said:


> I'll excuse Rooney but it caught my attention because I knew the B-17, as well as the B-29, were known as electric birds. A Boeing design philosophy it seems. This from memory but I think the the only hydraulics on a B-17 were cowl flaps and brakes.



The RLM (Reichs Luftfahrts Ministerium) compelled Focke Wulf to make an 'all electric aircraft' on the FW 191, a contender for the Bomber B specification. It was considered a failure. Kurt Tank, the chief designer at Focke Wulf was trained as an electrical engineer and himself had no confidence in the system. It likely was just a badly designed or implimented system.

One great success in the USA was the development of a rotating electrical amplifier known as the amplidyne. This powered all US gun turrets: B-26, B-17, B-24 etc irrespective of whether it was Sperry, GE or whomever.

Earlier rotating amplifier was the Ward-Leonard system whereby an electric motor drove an DC electric generator. The field winding current was controled via say a variable resistor and this was then amplified by a factor of about 50 out of the DC generators brushes. It could then be applied to an DC motor to gain variable speed. The Germans used this system to point their Wurzburg Riesse radars however it was too sluggish for pointing fast moving guns themselves.

In the US the perfection of the amplidyne allowed amplification factors of 1000-100,000 instead of just 50. In addition the current rise was much faster. In a US gun turret the gunner opperated a large wire wound variable resistor called a rheostat which applied the current to the amplidyne.

The Sperry ball turret was cleary in need of replacement. It would easily have been possible for the US to use synchro's to transimt gun pointing information to a B-29 style belly gun and replace this miserably heavy and dangerous ball turret contraption early in the war. The US Navy had been aiming its guns remotely (RPC remote power control) for years. 

The key complication of the GE system used in the B-29 was the computer which deflected the guns automatically to compensate for ballistics fall of, target rate, air speed and air density etc. However simply pointing the gun accuratly was trivial in engineering terms for US technology. The "belly gunner" could have been seated in the cabin and sighted via blisters on the side of the aircraft with a periscope for directly below. It was simply be a matter of a 5 gan switch for him to choose which gunsight he wanted to use.

The Germans did actually develop a technology of the 'magnetic amplifier' to a high degree to power their servo systems as well as electric servos and electric hydraulic servos which feature a rapid respone due to a winding to nullify self inductance. (used in V2 guidance fins) It was quite a good method and copied by the US for about a decade untill it was replaced as a technology by solid state electronics in the 1960s. 

In general other combatents tended to use hydraulics to achieve the general response and power required.

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## BryanC (Feb 19, 2013)

My father was a B-17 waist gunner with the 306 bomb group at the Shalveston base (near Wellingborough, north of London) and flew the 2and Schweinfurt raid, and others. He destinctly remembers the "Stars and Stripes guy" that was to fly a misson with them...and was amazed when that guy (Andy Rooney), became famous later (60 Minutes). My dad never talked about the war but I do remember him watching 60 minutes and saying..."hey...I remember that guy from the Stars and Stripes". I think the gruesome ball turret crushing incident happened many times...Rooney just reported one of them. Before he died in '10 I asked him about that story and his respons was "yeah....that happend alot"....


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## Njaco (Feb 19, 2013)

Thanks for the info and welcome to the forum Bryan!


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## parsifal (Feb 20, 2013)

I started this thread, and want to thank all the contributors. Its probably just about run its course but then, who knows. We all have our beliefs, our prejudices, our heroes. Courage and sacrifice should be honoured for those who had it, and what they had to give up. We need to always remeber and honour their courage they had in the face of adversity and danger. These men deserve our respect for things they did, and for which we can never repay


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## drgondog (Feb 20, 2013)

I have heard the survival stories of a ball gunner inside on a crash landing in which the turret (and Gunner) were punched into the fuselage.

Also, if the pilot had been able to get one main wheel down, the a/c would have been far enough off the centerline to avoid a blow to the turret

The Spanner wrench was on the bulkhead wall on the B-17E, I don't recall if the position was changed for the F and G but they were carried on every standard operational flight. There have been several combat narratives in which the Ball Turret was among the first to be jettisoned when trying to lose weight.


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## Gene McIlroy (Mar 11, 2013)

In response to Parsifal 8/12/2011 post. The trapped Ball Turrett Gunner was definitel, not from the crashed B-17 231613 which belly landed at Podington Field 4-19-1944. This crew had dropped their Ball Turrett, they were returning from an aborted run over France after having their hydraulic system hit by flak, the landing gear would not lower and could not be hand cranked down. My uncle was the Flight Engineer on this plane, He, the Ball Turrett gunner on this April 19th flight and a replacement bombardier were killed after a bombing run to Cottbus, Germany on May 29 1944. This info from reports by the crew.


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## parsifal (Mar 12, 2013)

Thankyou and welcome Gene. Still a sad ending to the story.


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## Balljoint (Mar 12, 2013)

There’s a picture of the crushed ball turret that Rooney supposedly witnessed on page 28 (photo images separately numbered) of Donald L. Miller’s Masters of the Air.


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## barney (Mar 12, 2013)

stona said:


> Rooney was a journalist and a very fine one. He was not an aircraft technician. I quoted him recalling the incident many years later. For whatever reason the crew were unable to lower the gear.
> Steve



Thinking about this I have changed my mind. Rooney was right there with the flight crews, he may not have been an aircraft technician but he had plenty of experts around him. So, I am not a believer on this one.


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## Night Fighter Nut (Jun 17, 2018)

I would hate to see a thread end on sad news so I will share the following story. Some time ago, in the 1990's time frame, Steven Spielberg did a short series of tv stories called Amazing Tales. In one of the stories was the story similar to what this thread describes. B17 bomber crew shot up trying to make it back to base and landing gear damaged so that it could not be lowered. The ball turret crewman was trapped in the ball after a Me 109 crashed into the plane. This crewman wanted to be an artist for Disney when he got out and was always drawing Disney style pictures for the crew. Realizing that he was going to die when the plane landed he came up with an idea. He would draw a picture of his plane and draw it with landing gear down. Meanwhile members of his crew were working frantically to free their friend. When nothing could be done by them, his close friend decided he would shoot him before the plane landed and crush him. In the end his friend couldn't do it. So this man trapped in the ball finishes his drawing with his plane and cartoonish landing gear ( peppermint striped red and white with bright yellow wheels, one having a patch on it) down and locked. Then he calls the pilot to try to put the gear down one more time. He then focuses on the picture with all his might. The pilot tries one more time... The bombardier looks back and can not believe his eyes. The landing gear is coming down and locks in place. But they are not like any landing he has seen before. They are peppermint striped with big yellow tires. The people on the ground see this, his fiance is there too, as the damaged plane comes in for a landing. The plane makes a perfect landing and the crew get out as fast as they can. What they see they can not believe. The captain tells them to get that turret open but don't disturb the man trapped inside for they could see that he was in a deep trance. The work crew arrives with a torch and they pull the man out of the plane, all the time being careful not to wake him. Once everyone is away from the plane, they wake him up out of his trance. As the man awakes, the landing gear disappears and the plane falls down crushing the ball turret. Very cool story. I think its on YouTube somewhere. Anyway, didn't want to end this thread on a sad note. 

Cheers.

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## Delnore (Jul 2, 2020)

Hi, I registered just to respond to this interesting thread. Whether or not there was such an incident is, to my thinking, an open question. The sole printed source saying it occurred was Andy Rooney, but he did not disclose anything until 1983. There's also an interesting detail he gave that no one seems to have found above. I've arranged this discussion chronologically:

1983: In the preface to _One Last Look_ by Philip Kaplan, Rooney recounts the incident, though with no specificity as to date, place, or unit.

1985: Amazing Stories episode "The Mission" airs. A ball turret gunner is trapped in a B-17 whose landing gear is also stuck, so he draws cartoon wheels on a notepad and they appear. Steven Spielberg has directing, writing, story, and executive producer credits and this is generally considered to be one of "his" episodes. (I fondly remember watching the premiere broadcast.)

1995: Rooney again describes the incident in his own book, _My War_, stating that he saw it happen and was not able to bring himself to write about it, and providing more details about the aircraft's condition. A skeptical reviewer notes that the incident sounds a lot like the Amazing Stories episode. Rooney writes the reviewer insisting that the incident occurred and that he witnessed it, noting that he had written about it before the TV episode in question, and supplying the critical detail that the incident struck the *91st Bomb Group* at *Bassingbourn*. Rooney also wrote that he did not record the unfortunate gunner's name.

1999: Rooney's publishes his collected correspondence under the title _Sincerely, Andy Rooney_, including the letter referenced above. It is at pages 110-11. Rooney suggests that he inspired the Amazing Stories episode. (This seems eminently likely Steven Spielberg's interest in WWII bombers.) 

2006: Donald L. Miller includes Rooney's anecdote in Masters of the Air, though without the further detail about the unit.

Maybe it occurred and Rooney simply chose not to talk about it for almost 40 years, nor did anyone else write about it. If Rooney's identification of the incident with the 91st Bomb Group is correct, then I think it's quite interesting that group's very active veteran's association does not seem to recall it. On the other hand, as discussed above, other people have come up with other units and it's possible Rooney remembered the incident but not details of the base or unit.

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