casualty rates among B-17 crew

[diddyriddick]

I'm just curious. Has anybody seen any info on casualty rates for B-17 crews by position in the aircraft? While I have nothing to base this on other than random guessing, it seems that the ball-turret gunner was particularly vulnerable.

 

[Colin1]

I've read somewhere
that the waist gunners took the biggest hammering, I'll see if I've got it here rather than something I read off a web page

 

[timshatz]

Ball turret and Tail were the two that I'd heard got the worst of it. Doubt you were getting out of either position once that thing entered a flat spin.

 

[Colin1]

Wow
this is pretty informative, they seem to agree that waist gunners got the worst of it but take the tour, it's very interesting. Just click on the name of the positions around the B-17 silhouette at the top of the page

Arizona Wing of the CAF - B-17G Flying Fortress Crew Positions

 

[Milosh]

I've read somewhere
that the waist gunners took the biggest hammering, I'll see if I've got it here rather than something I read off a web page

I believe in this book there is some numbers, "Gunner" ISBN 1-55046-332-2.

From memory, it is as you say the waist gunners, with the ball turret gunner being one of the safest crew positions. Again from memory, iirc, waist gunners suffered about twice the causalities of the next crew position but then there was usually 2 waist gunners.

The book had other interesting info like:

Testing done by the USAAF found that the bullet pattern from a B-17 during ground testing had the following results for 12 rounds to 600yds:

ball turret > dia. 15' - 8.3mils
upper turret > dia. 21' - 11.7mils
chin turret > dia. 23' - 12.6 mils
waist(closed) dia. 26' - 14.3mils
side nose > dia. 34' - 18.7mils
tail turret > dia 45' - 25mils

For the B-24 it was:

ball turret > dia. 15' - 8.3mils
upper turret > dia. 20' - 11.2mils
nose turret > dia. 23' - 12.9mils (Emerson)
nose turret > dia. 35' - 19.3mils (Motor Prod.)
waist(closed) dia. 23' - 12.9mils
waist(open) dia. 63' - 35.6mils
tail turret > dia 35' - 19.3mils

There was also data on the position attacks on the bomber came from.

 

[mhuxt]

There's a rather upsettingly-clinical pdf out there somewhere - I'll see if I can find the link.

 

[mhuxt]

Sorry can't find it, deleted off my HD too by the looks of it.

It contained analyses of damage to bombers and their crew overall and by German weapon type (flak, assorted airborne guns).

I felt rather ghoulish reading through it. Not my main area of interest and there was a pic of one poor fellow sans the back of his head. Made me feel like someone hanging around the scene of a fatal accident - bad mojo so deleted it.

Probably on one of the US Air Forces own historical servers.