I did find this, which isn't of a belly landed B17 but does support the idea of a crewman in the ball turret having to ride it down since the crew could not get him out while still in the air. Our servicemen, past and present, are amazing people!!! Two enemy fighters stayed right with us. Once training was complete, aerial gunners were sent out to operational bomber units as crewmen, serving as waist gunners, tail gunners, or most physically demanding, as ball turret gunners. Lt. Bill Ennis, pilot of their B-17, picks up the story from there. When we got over the target the flak was so heavy you could almost land on it. To enter in flight, the gunner had to manually traverse the turret so the guns were pointing directly down, which provided access to the door at the rear of the turret. Small windows allowed them to see under the plane, but not above. Another time, we glean a little more. Only three ball turret gunners received the Medal of Honor. These were removed in the B-17C and replaced with flush windows. That meant a bullet or piece of flak had entered the leading edge of the wing, exploded and torn apart the top of the wing where one of our gas tanks was located. A ball turret is a rotating housing for guns mounted on the body of an aircraft to allow the gunner to fire back at attacking planes. Armed with two .50-caliber machine guns and capable of rotating 360 degrees, the ball turret's gunner was responsible for protecting the otherwise-exposed underbelly of the flying fortress. The silent wing warriors.". heroic. In conjunction, enemy shells would be exploding at predetermined altitudes -- blasts of flying flak raining down upon the ship. To enter the turret, the turret was moved until the guns were pointed straight down. As you get in, take these steps carefully and in proper order. Ball Turret Gunners on B-17 bombers were protected only by a glass bubble jutting out from the bowels of the plane. All but a handful have been consigned to the wrecking yard. He was considered a perfect fit for the B-17's ball turret. He kept talking to him until the aircraft settled onto the ground. Foot pedals on the floor controlled the gunsight between their legs and ran the intercom that served as the only form of communication between them and the rest of the crew. I looked it over and noticed a puncture in the left wing behind #2 engine. Motivational speaker, consultant, author, blogger. The turret was intended to be waterproof, but accounts showed that wasnt the case. Statistically, the ball turret was one of the safest crew Most of all what was the dead mans name. The ball turret, hanging down beneath the plane, is no place to be when the bomber is moving along the ground. Two joysticks pivoted the ball around and around, up and down. The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner By Randall Jarrell From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Due to scheduling and additional training received by some members of Frank's crew, he flew his first combat mission as a ball turret gunner with the Lt Dow C. Pruitt crew on April 18, 1944. . Made of Plexiglas and about four feet in diameter, the ball turret was a sphere attached to the bottom of the airplane. B-24 Liberators were too low to the ground for the ball to fit, so they were fitted with a retractable turret that was stowed away for take off and landing. He flew with the Lt Albert L. Hanson crew. While that may be true of most crews, my dad defied this description. Her research focused on Victorian, medical, and epidemiological history with a focus on childhood diseases. Rank: Staff Sergeant He was thin and wiry to be sure, but according to his driver's license he was 6'1". We learn details as time passes. Randall Jarrell, "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" from, Time and the Thing-in-Itself in a Textbook. Kassel targets included aircraft, heavy tank, locomotive, engine, and motor transport plants as well as railway works. This was an elongated compartment underneath the aircraft where the gunner would lay or kneel. I've never known about this, another of those things I don't think to ask about. If the power system and hydraulics were knocked out an emergency hand crank could be inserted into the gearing mechanism of the turret and it could be returned to the neutral position to allow the crewman to exit the turret. 'The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner' is Randall Jarrell's best-loved poem. I want you to have it., On the flip side of the cross molded into the aluminum is one word and a number: Boeing 1-18630., Name: Robert Burling This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. A courageous young World War II gunner and aspiring cartoonist, trapped in the belly gun of a B-17 aircraft with the landing gear destroyed, has only his imagination as a force that might be able to save him. Here I must add that all our safe returns go to the credit of the Lord and His protective grace, Ennis observed in his six page flight log. B-17 gunners had a high casualty rate. I remember watching it when I was young. Their mission: Bomb Oberphoffen-Hoffen, a suburb of Munich. The turret on the B-24, however was retractable, as it hung much lower down. 77 years after the crash he still remembers his part of World War II. All combat missions were fraught with danger, but Frank spoke of a particular mission to Ludwigshaven, Germany, that became a test of his faith. (A pretty impressive bit of aviation engineering!). The worst position by far was held by the ball turret gunners. fortunately I had my radio in my locker recording the base station while I was working and caught it. He was back in the US before the Battle of the Bulge began on December 16, 1944. Thank you to Josie Navarro, Franks niece, for her help in researching this story, sharing family memories, and for permission to post the photographs. ball turret 2 [ ] B-17 2008 In fact, a literal reading of the line is downright confusing. The last aircraft shot down by a defensive gunner was in 1972, where a B-52 tail gunner shot down a MIG-21 over Vietnam. Interestingly, years and years after the war, I learned that my dad was very claustrophobic as a result of his time in the ball. Then he called anyone. No answer. In the 1941 B-17E model, the tub was replaced with the famous ball turret. Click Here to sign up to be notified when new stories are published. It had black and yellow check designs on its engine cowling and tail. The poem was written later in Jarrell's service career. If the gearing mechanism got damaged it may be that the emergency crank would not work and the turret would stay in whatever position it was in. But, he said, Magee only spoke to him three times about the events on Jan. 3, 1943. ", But if the Brits were ambivalent, the Dutch more than made up for it. After the war he became a Baptist missionary. Unfortunately, this was not a very good place for the parachute, as the gunner needed to open the turret door, enter the fuselage and strap themselves in all before the plane crashed. So very interesting, Michelle.My uncle became a field Captain during WWII. The turret held the gunner, two heavy machine guns, ammunition, and sights. It was a manned turret, as distinct from remote-controlled turrets also in use. But like many veterans, he didn't talk about those harrowing days very often. There were plenty of positions during World War II that put a servicemans life at risk. Michelle!! Thank you for sharing your dad's story. Despite the strong association with the aircraft, the B-17 was not originally designed with a ball turret. We should have been blown to bits. The ball turret was mounted underneath the aircraft and was used to defend the bomber against aircraft attacking from below. Michelle, In 1942 my father was classified as 4F due to a heart defect. My uncle, Frederick Raymond Restle Jr., was a ball turret gunner on a B-24 Liberator, who served in the 13th Army Air Force in the Pacific.His death is probably due to the design flaw, and inexperience of pilots with the B24. From this position a gunner could cover virtually the entire underside of the aircraft with his machine guns. This was the same for the return flight. But when I said that, at that instant, everything was just as peaceful as it can get. The ball turret on a B-17 could not be "cranked up", as it was not retractable. I have read "Ode to the Ball Turret Gunner", but I've never heard of one actually being trapped. The ball-turret gunner was caught in a plastic cage. The name arose from the turret's spherical housing. Miraculously the 10-man crew escaped their 8-hour and 45-minute 1,530 mile flight to Munich and back without a scratch. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. Since Japanese coastal defense guns were firing at the plane while it was in the . You need to be a member in order to leave a comment. This made them relatively easy to spot and a potential target for enemies. And once very 30 days, a three or four day pass to London (and the British pubs). Right Waist Gunner: 4. The date was April 20, 1944. Deviating from the course and getting out of formation was sure suicide because German fighter planes were always lurking in the clouds, ready to pick off a random plane. This guy couldn't get out til they got on the ground. Somewhere in my boxes of family photos I have a picture of Dad standing next to a B-17 and the ball turret at an air show in the 1990s, but of course I couldn't find it for this blog. Crews on a B-17, fondly referred to as "The Flying Fortress," flew enemy raids against Nazi Germany from 1942 to 1945. I just know that everything in the 8th AAF was so well documented I thought I would have read about it. ' The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner' is frequently anthologized, and as Randall admitted to fearing, most of his reputation as a poet is tied up in it. The 10 day affair wrapped up in the village church. Andy Rooney tells the story of a B-17 ball turret gunner traped in the turret and crushed to death when the plane was forced to make a wheels up landing. The Sperry nose turret was tested and preferred, but its use was limited due to poor availability of suitable aircraft designs. In 1943 the Ground Echelon of the 401st BG stayed at CampShanks before boarding the Queen Mary in New York City to cross the Atlantic Ocean to England. Sign up for a new account in our community. A diagram depicting how a gunner sits inside a Sperry A2 ball turret. Part of HuffPost News. Although the B-17 is a big machine she don't need any . Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. It offered them a sense of peace in knowing that they may not return. The pilot and the co-pilot must be able to start and to land the machine well and safe. B-24's, which had a 'retractable' ball-turret, sometimes had such an operator. Crackle! Well I couldnt move so I just sat there. After what seemed like an eternity, he saw the White Cliffs of Dover on the English coastline. And my father wasn't traipsing around Europe on foot in the Infantry, anyway -- he was a ball turret gunner in The 8th Army Air Corp, operating in a confined space. Ball Turret Gunners on B-17 bombers were protected only by a glass bubble jutting out from the bowels of the plane. The city was the site of a Nazi nuclear energy project. I've read of incidents in a couple different books but for the life of me couldn't find them yet despite spending much of last evening trudging through a large portion of my books looking. The ball turret on a B-17 could not be "cranked up", as it was not retractable. The underside was protected by another blister with a single machine gun. According to a 1944 summation from US Air Forces command the ball turret gunners could "swing on an attacking enemy fighter whether he attacks from head on, from under one side, or from under the tail." In "Why Soldiers Won't Talk," Steinbeck uses the imagery of a body waking up from anesthesia to describe. On the ends of the grips were the buttons to fire the guns. The turret also rotated 360-degrees, allowing the gunner to locate targets and stay on them, regardless of their position. He saw me and he gave me the OK sign, Burling remembered. In order to fit inside the turret, the gunner had to assume a fetal-like position, with their knees bent close to their body. To remedy that, the front end of the cover was "slotted". Its movement was controlled by a self-contained, electrically-powered hydraulic system, and could rotate at high speeds important for tracking fast-moving enemy aircraft. Each turret contained 2 .50-caliber machine guns which could be moved to hone in on enemy targets. The Ball Turret Gunner from B17 42-31377 Pot OGold crashed on 22 FEB 1944, tells in BALL TURRET about his job. Once we were out of the target area the crew got the track of my ball turret unjammed, cranked it around by hand until my trap door could be opened and pulled me out.. With this information, the sites reticule would automatically adjust to the lead required to hit the target. The spherical manned ball turrets, deployed mainly on the bottoms of B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers, were very small in order to . Works such as The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell and Heavy Metal ' s section "B-17" depict the nature of these missions. After a pause Frank continued his story. I didnt want to go down in flames so I tried everything to escape, he said. Ball turret gunner. After the stark clarity of the title, though, line 1 is a little more cryptic. In 2012 oral history interviews * **, Frank spoke of the anxiety and fear felt by many men flying combat missions. Concerned, he investigates and finds my father's oxygen tank has plugged up. renfield, During the oral history interview Frank asked for a moment to collect his thoughts. Some gunners had to maintain this position on missions of up to 10 hours. Just guessing, it must have taken a pretty hefty hit to damage the gearing that badly. I got one round out of each of my .50-caliber machine guns and that was it. At their height, the schools were pumping out 3,500 graduates a week, producing approximately 300,000 by the end of the war. The B-17 landed at a B-24 base in England. His position resembled the fetal position. The first is admiration: Jim Shepard, who has been much praised for his . He is retired and lives in Grantville, MD. Flak jackets and electrically heated flight suits provided some relief from the bitterly cold, sub-zero temperatures, but the uninsulated ball kept the gunner's hands and feet numb. separation from his new bride back home in England. Armed with two .50-caliber machine guns and capable of rotating 360 degrees, the ball turret's gunner was responsible for protecting the otherwise-exposed underbelly of the flying fortress. The edge of the puncture hole had jagged, upturned wing skin. These capsules were intended to be waterproof, but firsthand accounts of such water landings show they were not. Children: Robert. Ball Turret Gunner: 3. A bombers ball turret position is often looked at with fear in ones eyes, being suspended underneath a bomber with 30,000 ft between you and the ground. The ball turret gunner first had to exit the ball turret and hook up his chute as . More War Movie Content: https://www.youtube.com/johnnyjohnso. Their friend in the ball turret had been calm, they said. Franks last combat mission (Mission #32) was to a synthetic oil plant in Politz, Poland, on October 7, 1944. The ball's door was located directly behind the gunner, so with the guns at 0 degrees of elevation the turret could technically be entered from the outside while the B-17 was on the ground. A ball turret comes back to life! Last edited on 15 February 2023, at 01:43, "On "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Death_of_the_Ball_Turret_Gunner&oldid=1139421417, This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 01:43. *Thank you to Reagan Grau, Archivist, at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas. The fighters which attacked him were armed with cannon firing explosive shells. Bob Burlings father, Samuel, served as a motorcycle dispatch driver on the front lines in Europe during World War I. Also, one of my uncles was a ball turret gunner on B-17s. The Sperry Corporation designed ventral versions that became the most common version; thus, the term "ball turret" generally indicates these versions.[4]. From here, the gunner could protect the rear section below the plane. A ball turret was a particular form of spherical-form, altazimuth mount movement manned aircraft gun turret, accommodating the gunner with nearly all the needed equipment for defensive firepower (except for the ammunition storage) mounted either within or onto the spherical shell of the turret structure, mounted on aircraft during World War II. Staff Sgt. On the floor of the ball, one foot rested on a pedal that controlled the gun sight, which hung suspended between his legs, and the other foots pedal ran his intercom the only communication he had with the rest of his crew back inside the fortress. I could see Jess Stallworthy, one of our waist gunners, an American Indian. He had to get into one to see why it wasn't working, then redesign them and get the back in the war all within a 6-week period. The Dornier Do 19 was a long-range strategic heavy bomber that faced off against the Junkers Ju 89 as part. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Trapped in the ball turret of his B-17 bomber over Germany he almost died War History Online. Hesaw the ground getting closer and closer. Because of this surprise attacks from 12 oclock were not uncommon. My hubby says his father rarely spoke of those long 6 yrs. The Sperry-designed ventral system saw widespread use and production, including much sub-contracting. Pilots navigated. Upon induction into the USAAF Frank reported to Keesler Army Air Field at Biloxi, Mississippi, where he went through basic training and then received specialty training at the Airplane and Engine Mechanics School there. Some members of the Connolly crew fulfilled their mission requirements in August 1944.]. He talked about the terrible flak that ripped holes in the plane. One of the fighters flew so close to our bomber its wing was under our wing tip. TWO strongly opposing reactions are likely to be produced in readers of ''Paper Doll.''. For 1941 this was cutting edge technology. Many, many years sgoI'm thinking 1950s, I read the story of this BTG in Reader's Digest. The poem inspired the play "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" by Anna Moench, which premiered in New York City at the New York International Fringe Festival in August 2008 and was extended to play at The Space in Long Island City. As fate would have it, Frank knew many of the military personnel at the B-24 base. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. Twenty-six thousand never returned. These are the same link Ian? The landing gear was stuck also, and being after a mission the aircraft probably low on fuel. Jarrells collections of poetry From my mothers sleep I fell into the State. Made of Plexiglas and about four feet in diameter, the ball turret was a sphere attached to the bottom of the airplane. The compact size of the gunner surrounded by thick glass, aluminium and armour plating, combined with being underneath the aircraft, meant the gunner was relatively safe. At 5'6, Lowell got the short straw. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. I could see the whites of the German pilots eyes, Burling said. I would like to know the Bomb Group, the Bomb Squadron. One can hope that other flyers experienced the feeling of peace that Frank felt before they died. I just came across this article. Drafted in 1943 he requested assignment to the United States Army Air Force (USAAF). "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" written by Randall Jarrell is a poem that introduces three major ideas in only five lines. From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. I grew up believing the tale my father told me -- that I had spent World War II being toted around on his back. I have a question for the forum members to ponder. -S. McColl. $0.99 + $1.09 shipping. Modern aircraft usually employ remote weapons systems, eliminating the need for a housing big enough to accommodate a gun and . The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner Randall Jarrell - 1914-1965 From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Linked to yours at mine. Entered Service: 21 November 1942 This was only possible to accomplish in daylight. He wrote, When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.. He was posted to the 360th Bomb Squadron and the 303rd Bomb Group as a Ball Turret Gunner on a Boeing B-17 Bomber known as "Snap! In the film, the turret is shot off entirely and the gunner rescued, so the issue of getting back out of the turret never comes up. The main points of the poem outline the birth and death. 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Spoke to him three times about the terrible flak that ripped holes in left! Under the plane click an icon to log in: you are commenting using your WordPress.com....