![]() ![]() If the turret jammed due to battle damage or mechanical fault, the gunner would be trapped inside. If that's not enough, the turret could only be accessed if it was rotated straight down, bringing the hatch inside the plane. There also wasn't enough room for even the smallest gunner to wear his parachute inside. Explosive 20mm cannon shells resulted in the gunner's remains having to be rinsed out of his turret with a hose. Of course, that armor was only really good against rifle-caliber bullets. ![]() The ball-turret gunner was simultaneously the best-protected and most-vulnerable member of the crew, hanging out of the belly of the plane in an armored sphere.His screams got even louder when said strap was undone and the only thing keeping him from falling was his grip on the plane, even though he was safely recovered (ironically by the crew-mate he constantly teased). Rascal literally getting his turret shot out from under him, leaving him dangling from the underside of the plane, several thousand feet in air, with nothing but his safety strap keeping him from falling would be especially terrifying.While it's played for a bit of (morbid) humor, the exploding can of tomato soup really does look like a significant part of either Dennis or Luke had just been blasted across the cockpit."Oh God! Somebody's guts are all over the nose!" More than any special effect, a reminder of what the war cost those bomber crews, who were actually more likely to become casualties than the infantry. These are real letters, though they are to the families of RAF rather than USAAF aircrews, since the latter destroyed their file copies of such letters after the war. The footage of the real bombers being shot out of the sky, by Luftwaffe gun cameras, while letters of condolence are read in the background.Kenny Bragg and his copilot miraculously kept the bomber under control and nursed her back to their airfield at Biskra, Algeria, 90 minutes' flight time away, where they landed safely, with no casualties among the 10-man crew. ![]() The fighter tore through most of the B-17's fuselage, severed half of the control cables, sheared off the left horizontal stabilizer, and trapped the tail gunner in his seat note Adding insult to injury, it also wrecked the onboard toilet. On February 1st 1943, B-17F tail number 41-24406, All American, of the 97th Bombardment Group (Heavy) collided with a Bf-109 after bombing Tunis Harbor in support of the campaign against Rommel's Afrikakorps. ![]()
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