WW II B-17G bomber tail gunner for Lu (LucindaWind by danapommet
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Description
I�ve dedicated this to Lu (LucindaWind), because her father, was a World War II tail gunner. He may have been in a different type of plane but the dangers were the same. This is the same
B-17G �Flying Fortress� World War II bomber as my previous 3 postings. This POV makes the plane look much longer than the 74 ft 4 in (22.66 m) bomber that it is. This model had a 103 ft 9 inch (31.62 m) wingspan and weighed 36,135 lb (16,391 kg) empty. It had 10 crewmen: Pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier/nose gunner, flight engineer-top turret gunner, radio operator, waist gunners (2), ball turret gunner and tail gunner. In older models, the tail gunner was laying down in the prone position. This model had a seat and a much better enclosure.
Some data from The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft and/or Wikipedia. I also was able to talk to some of the heroes that flew the B-17s during the war and including a tail gunner.
The guys that you see sitting under the wings, were the heroes that flew bombers like this, during World War II. I spent a couple of hours in and around the planes and the rest of the day listening to stories. Someone should record these guys stories while they can.
Thanks for stopping by, taking a look and for all your previous comments and favs.
Dana
Comments (21)
Wonderful picture and great information.
Amazing shot my Dana, a hight quality photo, excellent!
Great image.
Wow, quite a difference when you see the whole plane; that tail is massive!!
Great shot and info.
Great shot!
A very different and pleasing point of view Dana. Well done.
What an amazing shot! Tail Gunners were always in such a precarious position...I mean, during war, what do you shoot at? It's obvious: the thing shooting at you! Shoot the gunner and you can take care of the plane later. I couldn't function under that kind of stress. I like this shot a lot because it's technically brilliant, and compositionally compelling. Great light and color too! In short, WOW. I'll have to catch up on commenting, but this is one I'm glad I saw and commented on now!
wow thank you for the dedi .. Ive never seen what my father "worked" in ..quite amazing and scary ..I know I wouldnt have wanted to be there .great info about it my friend .. I appreciate it very much :)
Great POV and narration!
Beautiful shot!
Great pic & info as always Dana. The men were very brave. especially in that small space!!!!
Great shot, nice POV.
Now this is both a great closeup and moderately overall shot combined. It gives a great sense of scale. Note the plexiglas radio room hatch is open (it can be flown this way) directly behind the top turret -not a real top turret :/ nothing inside the plane- the hatch slides forward under the skin so the radio operator could swing out a single gun . . . till everyone involved realized the weight was a bigger detriment than the "defense" it offered. This was also the primary escape hatch for the crew when ditching, the crew having ridden out the ditching there, the life raft being in a compartment on the left side of the upper fuselage over the bomb bay. The life raft hatch has a diagonal hinge line can be made out directly below the top turret in the picture. Great consistent detail in this shot. Sadly, note how the tail gunner's external gun sight is aimed slightly down while the guns are elevated . . . they should always be parallel.
COOL I LIKE THIS B-17
I am sure many people does not know the crew had no heat, so not only were they in constant danger they were freezing their butt along with other parts.excellent capture
marvelous image!!! fantastic POV!!!
SPECTACULAR!!!!!
Good shot. Interesting story.
Amazing!
this is super. my dad was working at a airbase here in U.S. and after ther war and a plane with a rear gunner landed on fire and the man in the rear gunner could not get out for his leg was caught on something. A sargen[misspelled lol] got a ax and run under the plane and he not sure if the gunner leg was cut off or not but the sargen had the man and ran away from the plane. that all he remember of this . mot sure if it was this type of place for he say it had a bubble tail gunner