Was there really no way to save the ball turret gunner??

[Dan Johnson II]

A chance find while looking for something else.

The Diary entry of Ball Turret Gunner John Briol from November 24, 1944, quoted in the book based on that diary "Dead Engine Kids" by John Welch.

This seems to confirm the crushed ball turret gunner.

"I saw in Stars and Stripes a case where a Fortress on a raid had been shot up and it was going to crash land. The ball turret gunner was trapped in the ball and couldn't get out. Everyone got orders to bail out, but the pilot, waist and tail gunners stuck with the trapped ball gunner. They were all killed. The story was told by the men that bailed out. I don't ever want anyone to stick by me if they have a chance to save themselves. I had to crank myself out of a ball once when the electrical system went out. It takes a lot of effort."


We seem to have agreed that Andy Rooney's version didn't get published until after the war in his book. So somewhere in Stars and Stripes from the Fall of 44 is another story about a similar incident.

Briol and crew were with the 457th BG.

[shrike]

I talked to a gentleman who had been a B-17 ball gunner at an airshow this past summer. He said he had 'acquired' a paratroopers reserve chute - the 24ft round canopy in the little pack.
He said that he could clip one corner to his harness, and lay the pack along his leg with out it interfering with anything. His plan was to go out the hatch to the outside. He did say that it was the turret with external boxes, and that he didn't know if it would have worked with the earlier model.

As an aside, the only reason it came up was that he spotted a reserve chute on an AB reenactor's display table.

[planeoldsteve]

Any pictures of the ball turret from Aluminum Overcast after her mishap? I had heard that her back was brocken afterwards?


Steve