B-17 ball turret found in Italian lake

Ken · **Posted:** Sat May 25, 2013 9:28 pm

If this was not yet posted:

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/sh ... ost6722063

The Inspector · **Posted:** Sat May 25, 2013 10:39 pm

Must have been one heck of an impact to knock all that glazing including the armored round window out of the frames.

gary1954 · **Posted:** Sat May 25, 2013 11:28 pm

I wonder who ILEEN was

carlisle1926 · **Posted:** Sun May 26, 2013 12:43 am

I never realized Darth Vader's "Tie" fighter was so small.

The Inspector · **Posted:** Sun May 26, 2013 8:11 am

gary1954 wrote:

I wonder who ILEEN was

His girlfriend, she had one leg shorter than the other :lol:

BaroneRosso · **Joined:** Sun May 26, 2013 5:57 am **Posts:** 1

A new article has been with new photos
this is the link http://www.ssb.vt.it/fortezzavolante.asp

Robbie Stuart · **Posted:** Sun May 26, 2013 2:37 pm

The Inspector wrote:

gary1954 wrote:

I wonder who ILEEN was

His girlfriend, she had one leg shorter than the other :lol:

Thanks, I told my wife that there was someone out there that "Ain't Right" as bad as I am, now she believes me. :shock:

The Inspector · **Posted:** Sun May 26, 2013 2:53 pm

Robbie Stuart wrote:

The Inspector wrote:

gary1954 wrote:

I wonder who ILEEN was

His girlfriend, she had one leg shorter than the other :lol:

Thanks, I told my wife that there was someone out there that "Ain't Right" as bad as I am, now she believes me. :shock:

I've enjoyed suffering from warped and twisted anxieties for most of my life

Chris Brame · **Posted:** Sun May 26, 2013 3:49 pm

Looks like one gun was named "Ileen" and the other was named "Lois".

Jesse C. · **Posted:** Sun May 26, 2013 10:23 pm

Chris Brame wrote:

Looks like one gun was named "Ileen" and the other was named "Lois".

Ileen Loise was apparently the name of the gunners wife.

So, where is the rest of this bird?

Dan Johnson II · **Joined:** Tue May 04, 2004 1:49 am **Posts:** 659

Amazing.

Interesting to note the guns are pointed down showing that the gunner had gotten out of the turret for bailing out.

What a story that turret could tell and maybe will in its own way.

B-17 guy · **Joined:** Wed Jan 19, 2011 4:43 pm **Posts:** 153

A couple things I noticed, in the pics of the turret after it has been brought up and close in pics are being taken, the turret is upside down and there appears to be flak damage in the turret itself, which could explain what happened to the glass. Also, the turret on it's gear ring is pointed straight down, so the gunner was probably wounded and got out quick.

The lack of the rest of the plane being there makes me wonder if the ball turret was jettisoned? But the whole support structure being there makes me think no to that...

Ken · **Posted:** Mon May 27, 2013 7:44 am

A poster on another site said this (unconfirmed):

Short history: A B-17 (41-24364) took off from Amendola on 15th Jan 1944,

on a mission to target Certaldo (close to Florence).

It was hit by the flak, lost two engines, the bomb load was dropped off over the Trasimeno lake.

Over Radicofani, the 10 men jump out the plane, five were captured by the Germans and five were able to escape.

The plane crashed in the Bolsena lake at 13:20.
All the crew returned home after the war.

The ball turret is going to be exposed in the Bolsena museum.

Ken · **Posted:** Mon May 27, 2013 7:52 am

More interesting info, including the gunner's name found here (ignore the site name).

http://tighar.org/smf/index.php/topic,907.0.html

See this photo:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/t ... 4364+photo

Taigh Ramey · **Posted:** Mon May 27, 2013 9:30 am

That ball turret was not dropped but was torn from the aircraft. When the turret is dropped it is unbolted at the saw horse mount to the turret mounting frame. This turret has everything up to the top of the aircraft. In one shot you can see the nut plates and bolts are still in place that hold the main mounting flange to the aircraft structure at the top of the fuselage. To me this says that the turret was torn out of the aircraft on impact with the water.

I would think if you look further down the flight path you will find the rest of the bomber if it hasn't been removed before now.

I understand it was common for gunners to name their guns individually. There are many photos of tail art and other turrets showing this practice. How about Pete and Repete on the Memphis Belle as one example.

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B-17 ball turret found in Italian lake

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