B17 (1 Viewer)

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Thanks, Jules.

My first question was more out of curiosity of whether the bombardier actually used the cheek guns. They seemed from my ill-informed background to be of limited use based upon them being single guns, limited traverse and narrow field of fire (vs nose mounted gun/turret). Thus, if they were viewed as ineffective, did the crews have the leeway to remove them to save weight? Or is any gun considered indispensable and they kept them in.

Thanks for answering my questions.

Matt.
Any gun that was in the plane was useful. I once tried unsuccessfully to use the flare gun to shoot at an enemy fighter
 
Awwwwwww!!!! You can't stop there!!!

Please tell that story! I'm dying here. Feel free to embellish until your hearts content.

Matt,

About halfway through my tour, I checked out my copilot, he was flying left seat and I was in the right seat with nothing to do. Our "large" formation was qbout 35-40 planes. My plane was on the extreme right side, This incident took about 5-6 seconds. I saw an enemy fighter coming at me from 4 o'clock
I could see 20mm shells coming closer and closer. I had to do something. I remembered the flare gun with a shell in it just overhead and a litttle to the left, I reached up and tried to pull it down to shoot at him,In the heat of excitement I forgot that it was screwed in a half a turn.. Fortunately the fighter missed me, as he passed under my wing tip, I saw him waving at me , he thought that I was waving at him.

When I got back to base I related the incident to the S2 officer, he sent the item to hometown papers, several weeks later I received clippings from my folks
"Nazi pilot and Jewish pilot, gladiators at war, salute each other in the heat of combat"
 
Hi Jhor.

Im curious about you being a Jewish pilot. I havent met or known of more than a handfull that served in that capacity in WW2

The only other one I met was when i was dating an old girlfriend of mine, who's dad was in B24 pilot training when the war ended.

1) Did you encounter any antisemitism during your training or tours?

2) Did the Army and AirForce give Jewish servicemen the option to fight in the Pacific so as to not have to worry about capture by the nazi's?

3)How many other Jewish airmen did you serve with? Were there enough around so the holy days werent a solo affair?

Thanks in advance!
 
Matt,

About halfway through my tour, I checked out my copilot, he was flying left seat and I was in the right seat with nothing to do. Our "large" formation was qbout 35-40 planes. My plane was on the extreme right side, This incident took about 5-6 seconds. I saw an enemy fighter coming at me from 4 o'clock
I could see 20mm shells coming closer and closer. I had to do something. I remembered the flare gun with a shell in it just overhead and a litttle to the left, I reached up and tried to pull it down to shoot at him,In the heat of excitement I forgot that it was screwed in a half a turn.. Fortunately the fighter missed me, as he passed under my wing tip, I saw him waving at me , he thought that I was waving at him.

When I got back to base I related the incident to the S2 officer, he sent the item to hometown papers, several weeks later I received clippings from my folks
"Nazi pilot and Jewish pilot, gladiators at war, salute each other in the heat of combat"

Great story!! Thanks.
 
Hi Jhor.

Im curious about you being a Jewish pilot. I havent met or known of more than a handfull that served in that capacity in WW2

The only other one I met was when i was dating an old girlfriend of mine, who's dad was in B24 pilot training when the war ended.

1) Did you encounter any antisemitism during your training or tours?

2) Did the Army and AirForce give Jewish servicemen the option to fight in the Pacific so as to not have to worry about capture by the nazi's?

3)How many other Jewish airmen did you serve with? Were there enough around so the holy days werent a solo affair?

Thanks in advance!

1.I never experienced any overt antisemitism

2. Never had any option

3. I had a j\Jewish waist gunner. I knew of a goodly number of Jewish navigators, also a pilot in my sqdn who was KIA. I don't understand the latter part of #3
 
Great story. One minute that Nazi Pilot is shooting shells at you, then seeing you're a seemingly friendly fellow he decides to wave hello.

How hard was it to see the pilot's features or other details on an enemy plane passing your Bomber at the high speeds you were both going? It seems like it would be quite blurry! I guess they tried to find people with good eyesight in the Airforce. How about your fighter escorts?


From WWII books, a lot of other Flight Veterans also talk of seeing things that would pass almost in the blink of an eye.
 
Great story. One minute that Nazi Pilot is shooting shells at you, then seeing you're a seemingly friendly fellow he decides to wave hello.

How hard was it to see the pilot's features or other details on an enemy plane passing your Bomber at the high speeds you were both going? It seems like it would be quite blurry! I guess they tried to find people with good eyesight in the Airforce. How about your fighter escorts?


From WWII books, a lot of other Flight Veterans also talk of seeing things that would pass almost in the blink of an eye.

Remember, we were both going in the same direction, so the relative speed wasn't that great.When he passed he was pretty close, he went within and below my wing, I was able to see his head wearing his O2 mask, it was probaly a split second view.

After that incident I realized why the AAF issued us brown underwear.

On that mission we didn't have any escort. I had quite a number of missions where we went unescorted

At my flight physical the most stringent part was the eye exam.
 
Now I understand a little better. I thought he was coming horizontal to your fuselage.

I need to learn those time positions better at any rate!

It can still seem amazing at times to hear from somebody like you who lived through, and survived WWII. God bless you men for getting rid of those twin evils and who gave, along with all our men and women, the US one of it's greatests achievements of Patriotism and Teamwork.

Ok, ok, maybe I went a little too grand.............but those are the feelings I get from hearing about those days.
 

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