B-17 Ball Turret Gunner (Dangerous Jobs in History)

Most claustrophobic job ever? :S

“So what are the safety precautions?” “No. Good luck.”

“When I die they wash me out of the turret with a hose” My god that’s morbid

My Dad was a ball turret gunner, trained in B-24's but saw combat in B-17's. Made 28 missions with the 401st Bomb Group was shot down on his last mission, spent 1 year as a POW of the Nazi's. Lost him 2 years ago at the age of 91 and he was a tough ol'bird and i miss him very much. Enjoyed your video very much. Thank you very much for all the positive comments!

Mac Dotson was a friend of mine. Died many years ago. He was a ball turret gunner who survived 27 combat/ bombing missions- only to be taken by stomach cancer at 73. Rest in peace Mac and thank you for your service.

My grandfather, Earnest "Buster" Matlock, was a B-17 ballgunner. He was 5'4. Did his duty, came home and lived out the rest of his life in East Texas.

Therapist: don’t worry, simple history 3D can’t hurt you. 3D ball turret:

I remember watching a documentary about a WWII B-17 crew. Their plane was damaged in combat and they had to head back to base for an emergency landing. Their landing gear was destroyed and the ball turret was damaged shut with a crewman still inside. They all knew that he would be killed upon landing. So on the way back to base, they talked to him and said their goodbyes. Imagine being dead while you’re still alive.

My grandpa served on B-17s and B-25s in the war. Being the shortest crew member, he got put in the ball turret of the B-17 and was tasked with manning the tail gun of the B-25. He was hit with flak twice in the war but he said the worst pain he felt was when his leg cramped up while he was in the ball turret and he couldn’t stretch to relieve the cramp for hours until they were back in British airspace

Can we just appreciate the animation of the ball turret

Wow, being stuck in a ball turret and the plane has to make a emergency landing. All you can do is watch the ground getting closer and closer. What a terrible way to go...

Memphis Belle for the win!

We read "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" in my high school English class and even a decade later that poem still sticks with me. It's so short, but it carries such a heavy dark feeling

My grandfather Eddie “Spaghetti” Quagge was a ball turret gunner in the B-17. He flew numerous missions in Europe, including his own parents’ country of Italy. On one raid, his plane took heavy damage from enemy fire; he saved the lives of his crew by jettisoning all extra weight through the bomb port to keep them in flight long enough to make it back to base. He returned to Brockton MA for a long and happy life.

Man enlisting:”I wouldn’t want to be that guy” he gets the job he didn’t want

To anyone fascinated with B17's in general and the ball turret position in particular, in the mid '80s Stephen Spielberg had a TV show called 'Amazing Stories', and an episode called 'The Mission'. It's Fantasy, but fun to watch.

My grandfather fought in WW2 as a tail gunner for the RAF. When his crew was put together, the way they chose him for this job was to give him a shotgun and shoot at clay pigeons. He was the son of a gamekeeper, so he understood the concept of giving moving targets the right amount of lead, instead of just shooting at them. He said it wasn't uncommon to meet a new guy at the base, chat, play some cards, the new man might put up some pictures of his family around his bunk, and then two days later... 'where's Jon?''... "he didn't make it'' He has 63 bombing missions in his flight record, and three crash landings. He said there was a pipe to relive themselves, but in that moment, he just went in his pants.  Half laziness because there were so many layers to undo, half the fact that he thought they would go down in flames, so there was no indignity in it he recalled. When he returned home, his own mother didn't recognise him because of the weight he lost and how the stress aged his face. He followed his father (who died young from complications from being gassed in WW1) in becoming a gamekeeper when he came back to Britain. He started smoking at 13, in his hay day he smoked two packs a day, and gave it up at 83. He was a chronic alcoholic until his death at 94 years of age. I hope everyone watching this fully appreciates the full horror that people like Les endured for our freedom. The luckiest and most unlucky man I've ever met. Anyone who perches on, or covers war memorials with their protests, no matter how important their message, should respect those few yards of brick and iron that commemorate the very people who allowed them to have a voice in this free society.

My wonderful Dad was a Ball Turret Gunner. He flew 33 missions between B-17's and B-24's. I know that he volunteered to be in the Ball Turret, and he wasn't that short at all, about 5'10". I had the greatest Dad ever. He passed away in 2008 at 86 years old. I miss him and my Mom terribly 😥

My great uncle (maternal grandma's brother) was a ball gunner during WW2. He wrote home during the whole war that he had one of the safer jobs on the plane, a waist gunner, I think. It wasn' until they got the letter that he was killed, that the family learned he was actually a ball gunner. He was trying to spare them the worry.

It’s what my Dad’s job in WWII. I didn’t have full appreciation till now. Thank you. I’ll add that during a training mission the turret unexpectedly spun leaving him holding on until the tail gunner could get out and come pull him to safety. They remained life-long friends.