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The Flight Engineer/top turret gunner is the senior NCO and responsible for a.) the load out on takeoff, b.) positioning the crew at the radio bulkhead station - then he moves forward across the cat walk to his station behind pilot/co-pilot for takeoff. Comer is first guy that should be chewed out - the ammo was probably stored back there on Comer's orders as it is hard to image that the aft crew moved ammo around and then watch the tail gunner maneuver past the stored ammo at bulkhead as the B-17 was taxiing.
It is a strange tale.
Note - we may both be a little dyslexic regarding the names and who told who. I assumed (bad) that 'Jim' was the Flight Engineer, and that the story teller was the co-pilot. If the story teller is Comer, and comer is top turret gunner, then who is Jim of 'Jim should know better'? Once again the top turret gunner/flt engineer is senior NCO
EDIT - OK - I have it now. Kels is co pilot, Comer is Flt engineer - so 'Jim' must be some other NCO still aft of bomb bay..I still suspect Comer ordered the ammo that wouldn't fit on radio compartment/bomb bay bulkhead to be distributed toward the waist. There is no explaining "Legg" being stupid enough to crawl to his position - not a great place to be if the B-17 crash lands on takeoff... if airplane survives then he spends more time crawling out over tail wheel than simply egressing out the aft door like the rest of the aft crew.
Can we agree on this... 1.) going to Anklam was a mission that was as long range as Berlin, and only 60 miles NW of Stettin, requiring b.) max fuel short of putting Tokyo tanks in bomb bay, and Probably reduced bomb load from 5000 pounds to 4000-4500, c.) and that the max bomb load permissible and loaded into the bomb bays was based on a calculation of 'standard' (for that crew) 7000 rounds of 50 caliber ammo?
Can we agree to conclude that the flight engineer (Comer) ignored his pilot's concerns for an 'extra load' of ammo (read a. and b.), much less Double the load (and weight) of what Comer described as Standard? So the Engineer, presumably knowledgeable about weights and balance, then stuck the equivalent of an 'extra' 2000 pound bomb aft of the bomb bay... which by the way - already had the normal spare ammo stored in the same location - mostly against the bomb bay/radio room
bulkhead - and didn't tell the pilot?
It did not matter if another guy redistributed the ammo because Comer is soley responsible for the act of overloading the airplane, and further, creating the aft cg issue even if the extra ammo stayed where he (Comer by his narrative) personally put it. Everyone crew member aft of the bomb was simply dangerously ignorant(for moving the ammo further back to waist area and tail bulkhead - with Legg particularly a bonehead for taking himself into his tail position in defiance of takeoff procedures!) and Comer was dangerously incompetent for a.) putting that much weight into an already planned 'threshold Gross Weight' airplane on a very long mission - even if he had placed 75% forward and 25% aft, and b.) not personally inspecting the aft section as the airplane was taxiing to make sure the aft crew was in the radio room (SOP) during takeoff.
I actually don't know whether the story is a stretched 'tale of survival', outright BS or a simple truthful narrative to confess his own ignorance of unintended consequences of his own actions. Perhaps harsh - but he did nothing by the book and the NCO's under his command totally screwed up written and practiced takeoff SOP.
And an additional thought here...
I want a yes or no answer from you Aozora, just either a Yes or No to my question:
Were you aboard that B-17 that day mentioned in the mission?
ENOUGH! One more sarcastic comment and vacations will be given. People are human, mistakes can be made, lets move on.
How was the ammo fed to the tail guns on the B17 all this talk of boxes has confused me I thought that the tail guns would have been fed from some sort of long track holding a belt similar to that used on RAF bombers tail positions.