Ball Turret Gunner.....

Arkmx
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Arkmx
Edited Date/Time 4/27/2012 5:07pm
.

Can't imagine what it was like to be stuffed in there for hours at a time. What a ride it must have been. Max height for the gunner was 5'-10" I think.





Outside view.





Close up inside, machine guns to your right and left.




Side Guns and Ball Turret on floor.





The Plane.



















Couple of other photos...



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Cygnus
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Cygnus 4/19/2012 3:55pm
4/19/2012 3:55pm
I saw a history channel or similar type show on those guys. I guess it was super fucking cold in there too. No thanks. I am slightly clostraphobic and I hate the cold. That would be a shitty place to be.
Kmid514
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Kmid514 4/19/2012 4:11pm
4/19/2012 4:11pm
I was going to suggest paying the $550 for a 30 min. flight, but guess not. http://www.libertyfoundation.org/schedule.html I think there's still 7 left on the planet that fly. Glad I went, they let you wander around to the nose turret, side guns, stick your head out the sunroof on top (yep windy). No belly turret access during flight, same goes for the tail (You could fall through the tail gear hole).
Kmid514
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Kmid514 4/19/2012 4:27pm
4/19/2012 4:27pm
TX24
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TX24 4/19/2012 5:51pm
4/19/2012 5:51pm
I remember some show I saw a long time ago. The planes one wheel would not come down. All the crew said goodbye because the gunner would be crushed on landing. On landing a cartoon like landing gear came out and saved him. The drama was great anyway.

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ocscottie
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ocscottie 4/19/2012 6:20pm
4/19/2012 6:20pm
Cygnus wrote:
I saw a history channel or similar type show on those guys. I guess it was super fucking cold in there too. No thanks. I am...
I saw a history channel or similar type show on those guys. I guess it was super fucking cold in there too. No thanks. I am slightly clostraphobic and I hate the cold. That would be a shitty place to be.
I saw that also Tommy, man that is some hardcore shit!! those dudes are way more manly men than i will ever strive to be. I love watching all those shows on History and Nat Geo.

The Sniper show was one of the best.

Also the real story about Tora Tora Tora. HEAVY shit man.

But the ALL TIME gnarliest is the one about "Tunnel Rats" completely MIND BLOWING what those guys went through. Try and catch that one if you havent. It is almost worth ordering on DVD, its that good.

I too am claustrophobic Never really knew i was until awhile back they tried doing an MRI on my spine, i was NOT havin it dude! I lasted about 2 1/2 min and started having a panic attack, never had / felt something like that before, and being trapped on top of being paralyzed and unable to move over 1/2 of my body, i flipped my wig bro. Never want to experience that again.
Jakes Dad
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Jakes Dad 4/19/2012 7:59pm
4/19/2012 7:59pm
The only other thing as close to being scarey would be a seal waiting inside a torpedo tube stacked on top of your buddies. But not near as long as a gunner.
JPT
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JPT 4/20/2012 5:20am
4/20/2012 5:20am
TX24 wrote:
I remember some show I saw a long time ago. The planes one wheel would not come down. All the crew said goodbye because the gunner...
I remember some show I saw a long time ago. The planes one wheel would not come down. All the crew said goodbye because the gunner would be crushed on landing. On landing a cartoon like landing gear came out and saved him. The drama was great anyway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Stories_(TV_series)
reded
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reded 4/20/2012 6:42am
4/20/2012 6:42am
I'd be cool with it right up until the nose of the ME109s started to light up as they were coming at me. At that point it becomes really uncool.
vet323
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vet323 4/20/2012 7:07am
4/20/2012 7:07am
Bought my dad a ride in a B-24 Liberator for his 75th B-day. He was always a plane aficionado (private pilot for 30yrs) and had always wanted to go.

I hope my kids buy me one for my birthday, too-think it would be pretty cool.
FreshTopEnd
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FreshTopEnd 4/20/2012 9:25am
4/20/2012 9:25am
TX24 wrote:
I remember some show I saw a long time ago. The planes one wheel would not come down. All the crew said goodbye because the gunner...
I remember some show I saw a long time ago. The planes one wheel would not come down. All the crew said goodbye because the gunner would be crushed on landing. On landing a cartoon like landing gear came out and saved him. The drama was great anyway.
That was the Amazing Stories series, which streams on Netflix. The story was based on a real event reported by Andy Rooney, who was a serious war correspondent during WWII (his memoir about this was a good read). Apparently they would enter and exit the ball in flight, but in this case the mechanism was damaged and couldn't rotate to reveal the hatch, and they could not the gear down. So they all flew home knowing what was going to happen, and the guy in the ball told them it was okay.

Scottie, my oldest sister (way older) was dating a former Vietnam Vet Green Beret who was a tunnel rat. Down with a flashlight and a handgun. Sad situation, the guy was drunk, lost it and got into a tangle with her one night, not malicious and too long to tell, but the short of it was I ended up on top of him to get him under control and settled down. He drove me home later and was just totally broken down. I can remember him telling me totally sobbing, and it's as if he was sitting with me right now, "people ask you how you can kill without it affecting you, but it does." It absolutely wrecked him. I am a great believer in a strong defense, but there is no resource our country has as precious as the young men and women we ask to do this, and there better be a damn good reason when we ask them to. You can't undo the effect.
wildbill
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wildbill 4/21/2012 12:35am
4/21/2012 12:35am Edited Date/Time 4/21/2012 12:37am
wow, strong stuff.

I can only suggest that we follow the money trail and get this type of blatant killing (still goes on today) stopped before it appears necessary.
Psc19933
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Psc19933 4/22/2012 11:07pm
4/22/2012 11:07pm Edited Date/Time 4/22/2012 11:09pm
A guy in town here was a tail gunner in a B17. He is still alive and has great stories. He was actually one of the first B17 to get shot down by one of the new jets. The plane was going down and he didn't have his parachute on(common because of the tight space). When it started to go down he went back up into the plane THEN put his parachute on and jumped out. He said the impact of the parachute opening knocked his boots off. When he landed the German civilians tried to kill him(understandable due to bomber streams firebombing entire swaths of German cities). The Wehrmacht arrived just in time to save him and took him into captivity. Later in the war the POW camp he was in was "liberated" by the Russians who told him that he was freed but not allowed to leave lol. He ended up having to escape to the West away from the Russians.

http://www.ww2-heroes.com/heroes/JosephWheatley.html Idk how to edit in hyperlinks... i guess you got to copy and paste it into your browser but it is worth it
ocscottie
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ocscottie 4/26/2012 12:32pm
4/26/2012 12:32pm
FTE: i just got this flick in today from NetFlix "Tunnel Rats"

"During the Vietnam War [1959-1975] a special US combat unit is sent out to hunt and kill the Viet Cong soldiers in a man-to-man combat in the endless tunnels underneath the jungle of Vietnam. Suicide squads of a special kind."
Falcon
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Falcon 4/27/2012 1:26pm
4/27/2012 1:26pm
reded wrote:
I'd be cool with it right up until the nose of the ME109s started to light up as they were coming at me. At that point...
I'd be cool with it right up until the nose of the ME109s started to light up as they were coming at me. At that point it becomes really uncool.
Yeah, because based on the illustration of the body position, I'd guess you'd literally take it up the ass if you got hit from head-on fire. Pinch
race
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race 4/27/2012 5:07pm
4/27/2012 5:07pm
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
by Randall Jarrell

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.

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