It was the best sight in the world -- second only to spotting the famous White Cliffs of Dover late in the afternoon after completing yet another harrowing mission.". To warm beds. He was the only one who did not survive his wounds when his plane was shot down. In the photos it looked like the ball turret got pushed up into the fuselage rather than being crushed. Ball Turret Gunners on B-17 bombers were protected only by a glass bubble jutting out from the bowels of the plane. Often soldiers who were smaller in stature were selected for this gunner job since it would have been even more uncomfortable for a taller or bigger person to fit in this awkward space. I was stuck, Burling said with a tremor in his voice and tears in his eyes more than half a century after the incident. 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. I mean just like a movie, but going like that [he snaps his fingers]. Thank you for sharing. 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. You need to be a member in order to leave a comment. Perhaps the other crew members were bigger men, but Dad wasn't small. Designed by the Sperry Corporation, the ventral ball turret was a hydraulically-operated addition to the two main aircraft that housed it: the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator. The primary target was Oranienburg, Germany. The ball-turret gunner was caught in a plastic cage. They are two officers of higher ranks. 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. 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 Permanently fixed and unable to be retracted, there was no hiding from enemy attack. 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. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. He received a bronze star for a campaign in New Guinnea but never talked about it. By all accounts, the ball was very small and very cramped. Needless to say, my Dad made it through the war. Frank and the crew stayed there for a few days while the B-24 mechanics repaired the B-17 engines. Dad was a 20-year old young man when Pearl Harbor was attacked. The first gunner in any position to spot an enemy plane alerted the rest of the crew via the plane's intercom system. 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. Two of the engines of the B-17 were stopped, about 3,000 pounds of dead weight hanging from the wings. Rolling the aircraft into a flaming ball on the runway isn't going to help the ball gunner. Right Waist Gunner: 4. As you get in, take these steps carefully and in proper order. Ball turret gunners were courageous warriors. All rights reserved. Click Here to sign up to be notified when new stories are published. The ball turret, hanging down beneath the plane, is no place to be when the bomber is moving along the ground. He served in the 332nd armored division and fought at the Battle of the Bulge. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. The turret was stuck so the gunner couldn't get out, and ball turrets were too tight for most gunners to wear a parachute. Ball Turret Gunner Alan Magee decided to join the US Army after Japanese attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. The ball turret gunner was trapped in the plastic bubble beneath the belly of the bomber. A ball turret was a Plexiglas sphere set into the belly of a B-17 or B-24 bomber. 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. Reviewer Leven M. Dawson says that "The theme of Randall Jarrell's 'The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner' is that institutionalized violence, or war, creates moral paradox, a condition in which acts repugnant to human nature become appropriate. I SAW A GREAT MANY TRAIN STATIONS AND NOT ONE WAS FREE OF ANY DAMAGE. As with all roles in the B-17, the ball turret gunner needed to be fearless. Because of the size of the ball, the men best suited to take the position were typically the smallest in an aircrafts crew. The city was the site of a Nazi nuclear energy project. (A pretty impressive bit of aviation engineering!). Jarrell is able to accomplish a lot in this short poem by using diction and syntax such as metaphor and figurative language. Answer (1 of 5): 5-6. A 5-7 person could fit, but was 'uncomfortable' in the rather confined space. Some members of the Connolly crew fulfilled their mission requirements in August 1944.]. So many interesting stories! Via input shafts from the ring gear, the K-4 then used the turrets horizontal and vertical movement speed to estimate the targets speed. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. He knew they were going to make it. These are the same link Ian? The gunner would use his left foot to adjust a frame in the sight to match the size of the targets wings this would provide the targets range to the computer. It is a truly monumental poem that in its simplicity there are so many hidden values. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. Spouse: Frances Due to scheduling and additional training received by some members of Franks crew, he flew his first combat mission as a ball turret gunner with the Lt Dow C. Pruitt crew on April 18, 1944. He never lost his childhood love for flight. Sperry and Emerson Electric each developed a ball turret, and the designs were similar in the nose turret version. Tell me about it! With this information, the sites reticule would automatically adjust to the lead required to hit the target. The cramped space meant gunners would usually remove their parachute and leave it inside the aircraft. He had to sit on his flak jacket. $5.99 + $1.09 shipping. Sign up for a new account in our community. "You literally had your knees up to your chest and in between you had the machine guns," said Gary Lewi, spokesman for the American Airpower Museum based . ", My Dad says "I saw the tulips spelling out 'Thank You, Yanks.' He spent almost a month recuperating and then was grounded for weeks. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. 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. I cant post a source but I do know it was a concern of a relative who was a ball turret gunner in WW2.He flew out of Italy and in B17s.What he stated to me once was he saw a B17 land once with the turret down.He wasnt sure if the guy was already gone or not as the aircraft had considerable flak damage and they couldnt get the ball cranked up before landing.He also said he was a bit tall for the ball so had to tilt his head to one side to get the door shut tight.He also said he carried a pistol as he wasnt going to ever have to land in the ball.True or not it was his story he told me as a young man. He knew what they had to do. The gunner placed his feet in the heel rests and occupied his cramped station. Obviously that's a B-17 not a B-24 so that might be different as . Franks B-17 was hit by flak and began tumbling and rolling out of control as it quickly lost altitude from about 30 thousand feet. He was considered a perfect fit for the B-17's ball turret. The title"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner"sets us up for a poem about war and death. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. Another time, we glean a little more. 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. Their mission: Bomb Oberphoffen-Hoffen, a suburb of Munich. It was an enclosure that at any time could become an airman's coffin. He would put on a safety strap and close and lock the turret door. It was a manned turret, as distinct from remote-controlled turrets also in use. Although the B-17 is a big machine she don't need any . [I] had my whole life flash before me from the time I was a little kid to that moment. Ball Turret Gunner B17 Flying Fortress Print WW2 WWII #1009 5x7. Bob Burlings father, Samuel, served as a motorcycle dispatch driver on the front lines in Europe during World War I. From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, The system allowed the gunner to protect all of the area below the aircraft, instead of just the rear. I know he flew in both.He was trained as a Radio operator/gunner and when he got to Italy he stated he was assigned as a ball turret gunner. I wasn't the brightest kid. While enrolled, trainees spent six weeks learning about range estimation, ballistics, aircraft recognition and Morse code. Nothanks for the heads-up JS! Our bomb bay doors were open and we were on our final approach. 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. His assignment on the ship while crossing the Atlantic Ocean was to guard German prisoners of war (POW) who would be interned in stateside POW camps. Only three ball turret gunners received the Medal of Honor. There was sufficient ground clearance for it with the landing gear down. I had been born in August of 1947, years after the war was over. My father was a co-pilot for B-17s. Hill Aerospace Museum's Boeing B-17G To enter the turret, the turret was moved until the guns were pointed straight down. But, he said, Magee only spoke to him three times about the events on Jan. 3, 1943. The Death Of A Ball Turret Gunner Analysis. 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. He prayed, Well, God, if this is the way it has to be, let it be. Frank said, I was under tension and wanted to live. The ball turret was a bomber aircraft feature, a B-17 or B-24, made of plexiglass and set into the belly of the plane. According to "Why Soldiers Won't Talk," ex-soldiers who do not talk about battle are considered. It's easy! All but a handful have been consigned to the wrecking yard. The Sperry Corporation designed ventral versions that became the most common version; thus, the term "ball turret" generally indicates these versions.[4]. 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). The plane was losing altitude fast and. The ball turret on a B-17 could not be "cranked up", as it was not retractable. In the 1941 B-17E model, the tub was replaced with the famous ball turret. Powered by Invision Community. I also remember watching this as a kid, I did not like the ending. Now as for Rooney - well as a journalist for 30 years, I looked at him as a story teller, and I take his tales with a grain of salt. 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. Its hard to explain like if you get killed, so what you just dont care.. 1 Be sure the elevation hand clutch is in the IN position. Kush is at the left end of the front row. The space inside the turret was very small and cramped. US MILITARIA FORUM - COLLECTORS PRESERVING HISTORY. The Sperry Ball Turret was under the plane as seen in the photo. And often did. Tail Gunner: The pilot and co-pilot. In fact, Jarrell came to fear that his reputation would come to rest on it alone.[3]. 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. Nearly every article I've read about the men who were assigned to the ball says they were typically the smallest men on the crew. Out of that new war in the air came the most anthologized poem of the war, the only World War II poem most readers know, "Death of the Ball Turret Gunner," by Randall Jarrell. Then a Focke-Wulf-190 fighter attacked our ship and the other five bombers at the tail end of the 1,200 bomber armada and shot down three of the six planes bring up the formations rear, Bob Burling of Lazy River mobile home park in North Port, Fla. recalled 65 years later. With the thousands of B-17s in combat it is logical to think it did happen. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. This has been a recurring nightmare of mine. Arguably one of the worst was as a ball turret gunner. Then he called anyone. No answer. They then placed their feet on the heel rests inside and lowered themselves inside. When not in full operation, the turrets still stuck out of the bottom. Thank you for sharing your dad's story. The ball turret was mounted underneath the aircraft and was used to defend the bomber against aircraft attacking from below. Ball turret gunner. Michelle, my dad led the engineering team that realigned the turrets on the B24 bomber. World War II veteran, flight engineer and B-24 ball turret gunner Walter Kush poses with his flight crew. In "Why Soldiers Won't Talk," Steinbeck uses the imagery of a body waking up from anesthesia to describe. Even decades later, he said he felt tongue-tied and emotionally thrown back to that mission. Poker games. The exact same type of motor was used for each main gear and the bomb bay door. In fact, a literal reading of the line is downright confusing. 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. Jarrell, who served in the Army Air Forces, provided the following explanatory note: A ball turret was a Plexiglas sphere set into the belly of a B-17 or B-24, and inhabited by two .50 caliber machine guns and one man, a short small man. If you go about it right, getting into the turret is as safe as climbing into a rocking chair. I figured they must have assigned only short men to the craft. The ball turret gunner was one of the most dangerous assignments in World War II. With this set up, the turret can move vertically and horizontally at the same time. The Ball turret itself has inspired works like Steven Spielberg's The Mission. They say your life flashes in front of you when youre about to die. It would take equal damage on both sides to jam the gear. This odd station was built like an appendage on the bottom of B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator planes, 2 of the main aircraft used to combat Axis forces during the war years. Change). "In "The Mission," an episode of Amazing Stories (TV series) from 1985, a young ball turret gunner is trapped in his turret until his skill as a cartoonist saves the day.". This provided some incredible firepower in a small space. A diagram depicting how a gunner sits inside a Sperry A2 ball turret. In 2012 oral history interviews * **, Frank spoke of the anxiety and fear felt by many men flying combat missions. [2][3] The turret held the gunner, two heavy machine guns, ammunition, and sights. The spherical manned ball turrets, deployed mainly on the bottoms of B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers, were very small in order to . While the pilots were given the best position on the aircraft, the gunners had to hold some precarious positions in order to effectively defend the aircraft. *Thank you to Reagan Grau, Archivist, at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas. Top Turret Gunner/Engineer: 10. The gunner released the latch and removed the cover which allowed space to clear the action. 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. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. One of the unique features of the B-17 bomber was the ball turret. He saved my life and up until his death, I kept in regular contact with him. Clickhereto view the War Tales fan page on FaceBook. At 5'6, Lowell got the short straw. Her research focused on Victorian, medical, and epidemiological history with a focus on childhood diseases. 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. Among the earlier designs was the Martin 250SH bow turret of the PBM-3 twin-engined patrol flying boat which had many points of similarity in design and action. The primary target was Oranienburg, Germany. The date was April 20, 1944. Later in the war the US Navy also used ball turrets on their PB4Y-1 Liberator and PB4Y-2 Privateer bombers with less-dangerous positions on the plane at the side or the front below the cockpit. His early fame, like Karl Shapiro's and John Ciardi's, was based on his war poems, published in the early forties. Each turret contained 2 .50-caliber machine guns which could be moved to hone in on enemy targets. I could see the whites of the German pilots eyes, Burling said. Click an icon to log in: you are commenting using your account. Were typically the smallest in an aircrafts crew the bomber against aircraft attacking from below,... Dad says `` I SAW a GREAT many TRAIN STATIONS and not one was FREE of any.... Died they washed me out of the B-17 bomber was the ball turret, hanging down beneath the plane cover! 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Received a bronze star for a new account in our community that at any could! Used to defend the bomber weeks learning about range estimation, ballistics, aircraft recognition Morse! Not a B-24 so that might be different as men to the lead required hit... Put on a B-17 not a B-24 so that might be different as data being processed may a. Moving along the ground via the plane, is no place to be unique! Research focused on Victorian, medical, and sights quickly lost altitude ball turret gunner about 30 thousand feet Medal... * Thank you to Reagan Grau, Archivist, at the same time.. His fingers ] born in August 1944. ] shot down of Munich logical! An enemy plane alerted the rest of the plane by all accounts the! `` cranked up '', as distinct from remote-controlled turrets also in use Pearl Harbor defend. A safety strap and close and lock the turret is as ball turret gunner as climbing a. 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