A ball turret gunners tragic reminder of heroism ...

[Mark Allen M]

... and ultimate sacrifice. Never forget those who gave all for our freedom. Video link is a bit grainy but sure gets the point across.

"2 November 1944: The 8th Air Force sent 638 B-17 Flying Fortress four-engine heavy bombers, escorted by 642 P-51 Mustang and P-38 Lightning fighters from their bases in England, over 500 miles to attack the I.G. Farben Leunawerke synthetic oil refinery at Leuna, a 3-square-mile facility a few miles from Merseberg, Germany. The Leuna refinery used a hydrogeneration process to produce aviation gasoline from coal. This was the most heavily defended target in all of Germany, surrounded by more than 1,700 88 mm and 105 mm antiaircraft guns (“flak”) in 36-gun batteries. According the the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, “Aircrews viewed a mission to Leuna as the most dangerous and difficult assignment of the air war.” One B-17 pilot described it: “When I describe the flak over Leuna as a cloud, I don’t mean just a wall of smoke; it was a box, the length, width, and depth of our route to the ‘bombs away’ point.”

On the 2 November attack, the bombers were under “intense” anti-aircraft fire for 18 minutes, and heavy fire for 30 minutes. They were also attacked by a record 700 Luftwaffe fighters including the new Me 262 twin-engine jets. The 8th Air Force lost 38 B-17 Flying Fortress bombers and 28 fighters. An astonishing 481 bombers were damaged."

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q= ... mb%20group
If you cannot access the link, PM me and I'll give you my login & password info.

[Mark Allen M]

Somehow I lost the facebook link. I'll find it and re-post it. This site has the same video towards the bottom but is missing some sections.

http://www.remember-our-heroes.nl/us_mission164.htm

[Mark Allen M]

Here it is ...

https://www.facebook.com/stephen.r.sand ... 339306728/

[Rajay]

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

"From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose."

-Randall Jarrell (1945)