whistlingdeath77 wrote:
Just some chin turret questions I have.
why was the chin turret always turned to the right or left on the ground? im guessing so the .50s could come out? or was it just in case of an accidental discharge into the plane in front of them?
Can the turret be turned manually from the outside?
Can the bombardier turn the chin turret with his controls at all times, even if the aircrafts battery is off? Basically, if the planes main switch was off did he have to go to the deck and switch it on and then go back down into the nose to turn the turret?
The turret had a stencil on it indicating that on the ground the guns were to be pointed to the right and elevated at, I believe, a 3 degree angle. Turning the turret one direction exposed two windows on the rear of the turret which would allow inspection of the inner mechanisms. I would guess the chose the right side so as to not interfere with crew members leaving the aircraft through the entrance hatch on the left side, but that's just a guess. Elevating the guns brings the backplate of the ANM2 below the turret. The full gun itself wasn't usually removed. The backplate could be lifted off and the receiver and barrel came out as a unit, leaving the gun body and cooling jacket in place. These were the items that typically got cleaned and serviced. There are many pics of B-17's (and others) where you can see right through the cooling jacket, that is an indicator that the gun has the internals removed.
I am not sure about your second question, I would imagine you could disengage the motors and manually turn the turret. I've seen video of people manually rotating the ball turret and that is electric also, so, possibly??
Being an electric turret, without power, the controls do not work.
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