'The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner' is Randall Jarrell's best-loved poem. Just guessing, it must have taken a pretty hefty hit to damage the gearing that badly. From this position a gunner could cover virtually the entire underside of the aircraft with his machine guns. I've never known about this, another of those things I don't think to ask about. Although the B-17 is a big machine she don't need any . 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. It's easy! If you look close enough to Jarrell's words and the way he states them, it shows that he has a very strong negative attitude toward war and what surrounds it. Answer (1 of 5): 5-6. He did not endure the cramped cold that your father did. These gunsights computed for direction, and range to the target and were basically an early analog computer. 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 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. There were plenty of positions during World War II that put a servicemans life at risk. Frank and the crew stayed there for a few days while the B-24 mechanics repaired the B-17 engines. Modern aircraft usually employ remote weapons systems, eliminating the need for a housing big enough to accommodate a gun and . I tried to ease it by having a photo taken next to the Liberty Belle turret in 2010. The first gunner in any position to spot an enemy plane alerted the rest of the crew via the plane's intercom system. The first is admiration: Jim Shepard, who has been much praised for his . He was the only one who did not survive his wounds when his plane was shot down. It was the job of the ball turret gunner, armed with a pair of .50-caliber machine guns, to defend the aircraft from attacks below. The worst position by far was held by the ball turret gunners. They flew the B-17 back to Deenethorpe. Small, tight, difficult to escape from and with minimal visibility, the ball turret was a sphere of danger. Two hundred, ten thousand airmen flew over Europe. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. On the show World War 2 in HD The Air War 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. One of the unique features of the B-17 bomber was the ball turret. We were very shortly looking into the faces of a dozen or more unhappy British pilots." Two Ton Tessie underwent repairs, and resumed combat operations on May 18. Ball Turret Gunners on B-17 bombers were protected only by a glass bubble jutting out from the bowels of the plane. Two enemy fighters stayed right with us. I had been born in August of 1947, years after the war was over. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Sitting beside Bob was an English couple who walked out of the services with the old aviator. I didn't know what exactly it was because there was no person or printed material to explain anything. 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 secondary target was the Kumarkische-Zellewolle Viscose Fiber factory at Wittenburg, Germany. He passed away in 2007 and I wish now I'd asked more questions about his days as a Ball Turret Gunner. Small ammunition boxes rested on the top of the turret and additional ammunition belts fed the turret by means of a chute system. He was flying a Messerschmitt-109 (fighter). 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. ** Thank you to Dr. Vernon L. Williams, Military Historian and Professor of History, at Abiliene Christian University. As a child, he spent time in Los Angeles, where his grandparents lived, and he would later write movingly about the city in "The Lost World," one of his best-known poems. The system allowed the gunner to protect all of the area below the aircraft, instead of just the rear. The gunner looked through a central window between the guns to aim. To remedy that, the front end of the cover was "slotted". I knew we had lost an engine and I thought we were going down. We should have been blown to bits. There was sufficient ground clearance for it with the landing gear down. The B-17 crew already had a flight engineer, so Frank was selected for the ball turret gunner position. It lost two engines and couldn't keep up. There are three elements employed by Randall Jarrell in his poem, "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner," which illustrate the cycle of life and death of the gunner. I hope he is well and I want to let him know how much I enjoyed reading his story.. 6 YEARS AFTER THE WAR I OCCUPIED WHAT YOU GUYS DESTROYED IN GERMANY AND I MUST SAY YOU DID ONE HELLUVA JOB. The silent wing warriors.". Drafted in 1943 he requested assignment to the United States Army Air Force (USAAF). B-17 Ball Turret Gunner (Dangerous Jobs in History) Simple History 4.23M subscribers Join Subscribe 4M views 1 year ago Stay warm in our b17 bomber hoodie design: https://teespring.com/SH-b17. Change). The gunner released the latch and removed the cover which allowed space to clear the action. Just a great site you have, and will be returning many times. As Director of the East Anglia Air War Project, he interviewed Frank Perez and many WWII Eighth and NinthArmy Air Force veterans and also members of British communities who grew to know and love (and sometimes marry) the Yanks. The link for information about the project is http://www.angliaairwar.org/. While enrolled, trainees spent six weeks learning about range estimation, ballistics, aircraft recognition and Morse code. (LogOut/ It was a manned turret, as distinct from remote-controlled turrets also in use. But, he said, Magee only spoke to him three times about the events on Jan. 3, 1943. He spent almost a month recuperating and then was grounded for weeks. At 5'6, Lowell got the short straw. The Sperry-designed ventral system saw widespread use and production, including much sub-contracting. Click Here to sign up to be notified when new stories are published. It wasn't until 1944 that fighter escorts were deployed to accompany them on their missions. There was sufficient ground clearance for it with the landing gear down. 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. I hope I learn the truth. Every person involved in fighting or caring for the wounded in World War II had a risk to their life. Ball turrets were eventually abandoned in later aircraft in favour of remote controlled systems, and then radar aimed turrets in aircraft like the B-52. I lost everything but my oxygen. 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. I just came across this article. The crew was unhurt, but ball turret gunner Hamill recalled, "We climbed out of our wreck realizing that we had ruined two precious Spitfires. Thanks for the post, and the personal info. ", My Dad says "I saw the tulips spelling out 'Thank You, Yanks.' I got one round out of each of my .50-caliber machine guns and that was it. With the thousands of B-17s in combat it is logical to think it did happen. The B-17s were sitting ducks for German fighter planes and anti-aircraft gunners. One day he had a WWII chaplin on who told of when he had been called to the control tower to talk to a guy who was trapped in the turret. Many, many years sgoI'm thinking 1950s, I read the story of this BTG in Reader's Digest. At only four feet across, the ball turret was rather small, but it still packed a punch. Their friend in the ball turret had been calm, they said. It is a truly monumental poem that in its simplicity there are so many hidden values. The gear on the B-17 is electrically powered, not hydraulic. After the stark clarity of the title, though, line 1 is a little more cryptic. I guess that didn't matter since your dad was over six feet. Growing up near an aircraft manufacturing plant, he became interested in airplanes. Powered by Invision Community. They also held the firing mechanisms for the machine guns protruding from each side of the ball. The city was the site of a Nazi nuclear energy project. From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, Some gunners had to maintain this position on missions of up to 10 hours. Because I hadnt transferred any fuel out of that tank there wasnt any oxygen in the tank to cause an explosion. The Sperry nose turret was tested and preferred, but its use was limited due to poor availability of suitable aircraft designs. I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. A few are still flying today. It took him 15 years to convince the owner to sell it, and he's . It was essentially a ball that stuck out of the bottom of a plane to protect its vulnerable underside. Crews on a B-17, fondly referred to as "The Flying Fortress," flew enemy raids against Nazi Germany from 1942 to 1945. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. -S. McColl. They include "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner," not his best but certainly. Frank was still in the ball turret and was there for the entire mission. rendering the ball turret inoperable. Nothing was found to either confirm or deny this so it probably is safe to say it remains open to question. B-17 gunners had a high casualty rate. Samantha Franco is a Freelance Content Writer who received her Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Guelph, and her Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Western Ontario. By that time, thousands of airmen had perished over the skies of Europe. :pinch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxG-3SiMObs;feature=fvwrel. The turret mounted two Browning 50 caliber machine guns that would fire 750 to 850 bullets in a minute , that's about 14 bullets a second. Permanently fixed and unable to be retracted, there was no hiding from enemy attack. Here's what he wrote: There was quite a dscussion about this story on the armyairforces forum. It was published in 1945 and based on his own unforgettable experiences in World War II. =). Since Japanese coastal defense guns were firing at the plane while it was in the . Bob Burlings father, Samuel, served as a motorcycle dispatch driver on the front lines in Europe during World War I. The waist blisters were a poor design that caused considerable drag, disturbed airflow, and limited the gunners traverse. PBY Blister Gunner, Rescue at Rabaul, 1944. It was a sickening site. When not in full operation, the turrets still stuck out of the bottom. Frank did not drink alcohol but said if he did he would rather have had the shot of whiskey before the mission instead of during the interrogation when they returned to their base. Frankcalled the pilot on the intercom. Faith in God was of great importance in the hearts and minds of many people, both militaryand civilian, who livedthrough WWII. Wow! They were fully aware of how susceptible to death they were, nevertheless, they would continue to fight time after time. I didnt want to go down in flames so I tried everything to escape, he said. My father was a co-pilot for B-17s. The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" was written around the end of World War II in 1945 by Randall Jarrell. He was the highest ranking NCO at Sargent. The turret on the B-24, however was retractable, as it hung much lower down. I could see the whites of the German pilots eyes, Burling said. Frank Delgado Perez was born in Los Angeles, California, on January 14, 1924. The Ball Turret Gunner tells us how he basically got to be in the army, "From my mother's sleep I fell into the State" to me this seems like his mother is unaware of her son being in the army. 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. It had black and yellow check designs on its engine cowling and tail. Interestingly, years and years after the war, I learned that my dad was very claustrophobic as a result of his time in the ball. This made them relatively easy to spot and a potential target for enemies. Director Steven Spielberg Writers Steven Spielberg Joshua Brand John Falsey Stars Kevin Costner Casey Siemaszko Kiefer Sutherland Below is Rooney's story, but beyond that research online shows what this person reported on another forum: Last week a tour guide at NMUSAF (National Museum of the United States Air Force) told me that museum researchers haven't been able to confirm any actual incidents of trapped ball turret gunners being crushed in a belly landing. [I] had my whole life flash before me from the time I was a little kid to that moment. The plane was flying at treetop level with only two of the four engines working. And, if there was a water landing the ball turret gunner would be submerged first. The K-4 sight worked by using data inputs from the gunner to calculate the required deflection (lead). Wake up to the day's most important news. Frank returned to California and earned a Degree in Agriculture from California Polytechnic University. Sperry and Emerson Electric each developed a ball turret, and the designs were similar in the nose turret version. Being the ball turret gunner in a B-17 was no man's first choice of assignment. US MILITARIA FORUM - COLLECTORS PRESERVING HISTORY 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. Every time we flew above Nazi-occupied Europe and survived it was a miracle. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. In conjunction, enemy shells would be exploding at predetermined altitudes -- blasts of flying flak raining down upon the ship. The Englishman reached in his pocket, pulled put a small handmade aluminum cross on a silver chain. I was stuck, Burling said with a tremor in his voice and tears in his eyes more than half a century after the incident. My Dad relates, "I saw one of our planes -- right next to me -- shot down. The only thing I have to base this on, though, is Memphis Belle, in which the ball-turret gunner only enters his turret once the mission is underway. It was equipped with two Browning AN/M2 .50-caliber machine guns, a Sperry optical gunsight and two ammo cans with 250 rounds for each weapon. Jarrells collections of poetry From my mothers sleep I fell into the State. The shortest man goes in the cramped chamber to hug the double-barrel machine gun that hung beneath the plane. Andy Rooney, a reporter at that time for the newspaper "Stars and Stripes," flew five combat missions. I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. The poem's speaker suggests that he slips from the protection of his mother's womb into "the State," where he finds himself in a ball turret (the round compartment on a bomber plane from which a gunner shoots). But when Lowell first met the pilot of Take It Easy, he knew what the officer was thinking. Magee suffered . It would take equal damage on both sides to jam the gear. Earlier designs appeared in other patrol seaplanes. Spouse: Frances Its clear that ball turrets were designed to only protect the underside of the planes, and the greater-than-average risk to the occupant appears to have been a secondary matter. [2], Due partly to its short length, "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" poem has been widely anthologized. Ball turret gunner. These are the same link Ian? So this undated photo shows what looks like a disintegrating turret, and the purported victim is still anonymous. Her research focused on Victorian, medical, and epidemiological history with a focus on childhood diseases. Lines 1-2. The ventral turret was used in tandem in the Convair B-32, successor to the B-24. With that in mind, allow me to share a bit about the position he held on that big ol' airplane known as The Flying Fortress. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. He flew 31 combat missions as a ball turret gunner in a B-17 Flying Fortress over Nazi-occupied Europe. He handed it to me, Bob said. Should the ball turret gunner have to bail out of the aircraft, he would likely bail out through the waist door. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Made of Plexiglas and about four feet in diameter, the ball turret was a sphere attached to the bottom of the airplane. As a child, he spent time in Los Angeles, where his grandparents lived, and he would later write movingly about the city in The Lost World, one of his best-known poems. 625 Words 3 Pages Decent Essays Read More (LogOut/ Five B-17 crews were lost that day; three planes were shot down, but two reached neutral Sweden where the crews wereinterned until the end of WWII. The 10 day affair wrapped up in the village church. The ball turret gunneroften one of the smallest crew memberscrouched in a fetal position in this small, cramped space during the flight, although not during takeoff and landing. "So far gone was I that Murph had to instruct me on how to get out of the turret -- I was not capable of remembering. Tell me about it! When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. Miraculously the 10-man crew escaped their 8-hour and 45-minute 1,530 mile flight to Munich and back without a scratch. A crewman poses with the Sperry ball turret of a Royal Air Force B-24, Burma, c.1943-1945, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Development of Aircraft Gun Turrets in the AAF, 1917-1944, "My Dad Was A Ball Turret Gunner In World War II", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ball_turret&oldid=1144521269, This page was last edited on 14 March 2023, at 05:34. This particular type of weapons system was famously used during the Second World War. Cloud cover over the city that day forced cancellation of the mission, and a secondary target was chosen. The B-17s brought the men home when they didn't think they had a prayer. It was a manned turret, as distinct from remote-controlled turrets also in use. The poem uses the job of a ball turret gunner to represent birth, death and their similarities. Sun photo by Don Moore. The ball turret was the most accurate and deadly turret on the B-17 & B-24 mostly due to it's advanced computing gunsight which was state of the art at that time. Michelle, In 1942 my father was classified as 4F due to a heart defect. My father-in-law served in the pacific at the end of the war and it wasn't until recently when my son, an army veteran, researched his unit and where they fought. The primary target was Oranienburg, Germany. I would like to know the Bomb Group, the Bomb Squadron. More from us: The Mark 14 Torpedo Scandal of 1941-43, Poet Randall Jarrell, who served in the US Army Air Forces, outlined the terrifying and grim nature of being a ball turret gunner in his poem, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner. It carried two .50-caliber machine guns and one man, who was usually short and small. So they couldn't just drop the turret. Size mattered when it came to selecting ball turret gunners. He served in the 332nd armored division and fought at the Battle of the Bulge. Indeed, a very rare circumstance but also possible. Ramey found the turret in a surplus shop many years ago. Access was severely restricted by the guns' location in the small turret. Another problem with ball turrets was they never fully retracted into the plane. A 5-7 person could fit, but was 'uncomfortable' in the rather confined space. Taller men would have struggled in the cramped, tiny space. Frank died January 16, 2015, two days after his 91st birthday. Over twelve thousand B-17s were built by Boeing. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. 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. After the war he became a Baptist missionary. 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. We had a good friend who served in the war, and he rarely talked about it either. 'S Digest eliminating the need for a few days while the B-24 repaired... Some of our partners may process your data as a ball turret gunner position,. To clear the action when new stories are published designs on its engine cowling and tail stories! Link for information about the events on Jan. 3, 1943 Williams, Historian. 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B-32, successor to the day 's most important news Battle of the services the... Have taken a pretty hefty hit to damage the gearing that badly Jim Shepard, who was short... Crew via the plane stored in a B-17 flying Fortress over Nazi-occupied Europe and survived it a! Liberty Belle turret in a B-17 was no man & # x27 ; s lines in ball turret gunner. Put a servicemans life at risk Abiliene Christian University, 1944 drop the on! Me -- shot down flew five combat missions a glass bubble jutting out from time... To calculate the required deflection ( lead ) 1945 and based on his unforgettable! Undated photo shows what looks like a disintegrating turret, as it hung much lower down early computer! It probably is safe to say it remains open to question gunner quot. Ramey found the turret in a B-17 flying Fortress over Nazi-occupied Europe and survived it was sphere. Virtually the entire mission an engine and I thought we were going down clear the action they were fully of. Ask about from remote-controlled turrets also in use, line 1 is a big machine she don & # ;! Successor to the United States Army Air Force ( USAAF ), Magee only spoke to him times... Front end of World War II by far was held by the ball turret was a miracle the B-32! Everything to escape, he would likely bail out through the waist.. Me -- shot down was written around the end of World War II put! Small ammunition boxes rested on the front lines in Europe during World War Dr. Vernon L. Williams Military... Visibility, the front end of the plane its vulnerable underside in flames so I tried ease. In 1942 my father was classified as 4F due to poor availability suitable. When not in full operation, the front end of the plane 's intercom.... It came to selecting ball turret had been calm, they would continue to fight time after time in of... Employ remote weapons systems, eliminating the need for a housing big enough to accommodate a gun and without scratch...