After watching a B-17 flying recently, I was curious how the underside ball turret gunner entered/exited the turret. Was it from below or from inside? I had heard a couple of horror stories of how they were trapped if they aircraft had to do a wheels-up landing, etc., but I didn't know if they were true or not. I would think it would be terribly uncomfortable to be in one of those things for hours on end, or stuck in one with the electricity out and so on.
Thanks in advance for any answers.
After watching a B-17 flying recently, I was curious how the underside ball turret gunner entered/exited the turret. Was it from below or from inside? I had heard a couple of horror stories of how they were trapped if they aircraft had to do a wheels-up landing, etc., but I didn't know if they were true or not. I would think it would be terribly uncomfortable to be in one of those things for hours on end, or stuck in one with the electricity out and so on.
Thanks in advance for any answers.
Inside. During start and landing, the gunner was not present in the ball, but stayed with the others in the hull. Only when entering enemy territory, he had to climb into his seat, so he wasn't there the whole flight. This was bad enough as the position is very cramped and often the gunner had to be pulled out by his mates as he wasn't able to move his legs anymore, because of bad blood circulation..
Maximum height for a ball-turret gunner was 5'4". It was very cramped. There is a hatch on the ball that the gunner would climb into once airborne. I have some shots of it somewhere.
After watching a B-17 flying recently, I was curious how the underside ball turret gunner entered/exited the turret. Was it from below or from inside? I had heard a couple of horror stories of how they were trapped if they aircraft had to do a wheels-up landing, etc., but I didn't know if they were true or not. I would think it would be terribly uncomfortable to be in one of those things for hours on end, or stuck in one with the electricity out and so on.
Thanks in advance for any answers.
If a wheels up landng was done with the ball turret down it would crack the fuselage in half or cave into the fuselage. Half the ball was a chunk of extremely thick aluminum casting, the over half was plexiglass, several inches thick.
If a wheels up landng was done with the ball turret down it would crack the fuselage in half or cave into the fuselage. Half the ball was a chunk of extremely thick aluminum casting, the over half was plexiglass, several inches thick.
I know you have seen the B-17 and B-24 Ball, but at risk of boring others..
First the B-24 Ball was retractable and could be raised into the Fuselage.
Both had a Frame inside the fuselage, which had the oxygen hose and electrical connection for heating inside the turret, entering near the top of the frame and dropping to the Ball (IIRC).
You Could open the aft hatch of the ball Turret from the outside - which was opposite the circular panel the gunner used to sight through. but nearly impossible to go out that way with guns level
The SOP was to rotate the ball so that the 50's were pointed straight down, open and enter the hatch and climb in, then close and lock the hatch from the inside.
In an emergency you rotated the turret to face down and hoped someone was there to help open the hatch and hand you your chute if you chose 'comfort' over safety. Even a small guy was extremely cramped with a chute over the electrically heated suit.
It almost always caused a fuselage structural failure in that location during ditching, and often with a belly landing.