What B-17 position would you want

Something to ponder on....




Those are 20mm holes and the pilot was decapitated ( 381st BG, Ridgewell ).

 

Excellent picture Martin ! That would have made a very long cold trip home sitting with a headless pilot and all the blood and brains splattered everywhere.

Did the book say if the co-pilot ever flew anouther mission ?

 

Co-pilot Lt Thomas Sellars was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for bringing the aircraft safely home. But he was so shocked by the incident that he was stood down for several weeks before being able to return to operational flying.

 

Thanx Martin!

Excellent picture and definitely puts some shivers down the spine...

Just gotta wonder what it felt like for the "cleaning personnel" or later on the crew who flew the plane. Don´t know about the planes but from the Cooper´s Sherman book I learnt that once the previous crew was removed from the walls the stink would never leave...maybe psychological but anyway...

 

Thank you Martin. The poor co-pilot may have had nightmares the rest of his life.

 

Waist Gunner for sure, and fit and healthy after 25 missions then home.

Regards.

 

I would have to go top turret or radio man. I would feel much more comfortable looking at the plane under me.

 

Well I sure know one thing, I would never want to be the poor guy in the ball turrent... I've heard first hand horror stories about those things. One imparticular that I heard was one fellow served as ball gunner in the B17. The plane got hit hard but he didn't reallly notice while in the ball. He noticed the plane beginning to descend and climbed out of the ball to find the rest of the crew had already bailed! Poor guy, nobody thought to let 'em know they were jumpin.

One other story I had about B17's.. I was personal friends with a captain of a B17. 2nd Lt. Glenn H. Rojohn served in the 100th Bombing Group and was flying a bombing run over Hamburg, Germany. When one of the planes in the formation was shot down, Rojohn slid to the left to fill the position, but at the same time another B-17 ascended to fill the same slot. Both planes collided in mid air and locked together. Rojohn cut his props and flew both planes on the engines from the bottom B-17. He turned the planes and successfully made an emergency landing on German soil. Most of the crew were able to bail over the ocean before the landing, but the ball guner of the top plane was crushed on contact.



Glenn was quite a man. I occasionally visited him down the road until he died a few years ago.

One Article

 

Radio fitter, ground crew sounds sensible enough to me.

 

Many thanks for that posting, Doktor D. The 'twin Fortress' incident happened, I believe, on the Hamburg raid of December 31st 1944. By coincidence, I had the good fortune to meet and talk in 2002 with 1st Lt. Charles 'Hong Kong' Wilson who flew as deputy lead for the 100th BG on that day. It was a meeting I remember with real pleasure.

 

Yeah, I'd have to go with co-pilot.

Interesting story about the 2 B-17's.

 

I seem to recall the ball turret guy must get out by getting inside the plane first, but he is pushed into the turret from the outside of plane to begin with. Right?? How fast could he in optimal situation get out of the turret (first) during flight?

 

I do know that it was infact a difficult thing to do when the ball turret gunner had to make his way from in the ball to in the plane and from there out. My guess is maybe its the way the door or latch shut that prevented him from going straight back from the ball to the outside.

I guess I really wouldn't want a latch on the inside that would let the door drop beneath my feet at 10,000ft if I knocked it the wrong way..

 

The ball-turret gunner entered his turret from inside the aircraft after it had taken off ( ie guns pointing straight down, hatch upwards ).

He could release himself without assistance but it often wasn't easy ( and if the turret mechanism had been damaged in any way, it could be impossible ).

 

One of the big risks for the ball turret is that if the motors or mechanism went out while the gunner was in it, the chances of him surviving the landing was slim.

 

the place on the B-17 would maybe be the waist gunner position.

 

Neither of these places:
They came back.
Or here:
Warbirds.

Brave men.

If I can I'll definitely choose to stay at home please, maybe shoot myself in the foot and take the shame.
Cheers,
Adam.

 

those B-17 were torn up, I'd rather be at home too or be a fighter pilot.

 

navigator seems the most boring yet safest of options