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parsifal
Colonel
Thankyou and welcome Gene. Still a sad ending to the story.
Story Of Heroism - The trapped belly turret gunner
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Balljoint
Senior Airman
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.
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.
Night Fighter Nut
Master Sergeant
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.
Cheers.
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.
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.
