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B-17 Ball Turret Gunner
This is a nice reproduction of an original World War Two photograph showinga B-17 Ball Turret gunner posing in his heavy flying gear between the barrels of the twin .50 caliberBrowning machine guns in his turret. Themen who manned these cramped, cold, lonely positions wereextremely courageous. This particular gunner was a Medal of Honor recipient!
BALL TURRET GUNNER MAYNARD\"SNUFFY\" SMITH -
306TH BOMB GROUP (\"THE REICH WRECKERS\"
MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT
A 423rd SquadronFortress piloted by 1/Lt Lewis Johnson, receivedseveral hits, starting fires in both the tail wheel housing and radiocompartment. The ball turret gunner, S/Sgt Maynard \"Snuffy\" Smith onhis first mission, emerged from his turret as its power-operated rotatingmechanism had ceased to function. Seeing the two waist gunners and the radiooperator, all veterans of action over Europe, take to their parachutes he mighthave been expected to follow. What motivated him to stay in the apparently doomedplane is not clear.
At the time, there was no way oftelling if the men forward were preparing to jump, for the raging fire in theradio room isolated them. Wrapping a sweater around his face to filter air inthe smoke, Smith fought the fire with a hand extinguisher. As the B-17maintained formation, he assumed that there must be somebody in the cockpit.Momentarily turning attention to a minor fire in the rear, he found the tailgunner had not jumped with the other men and was lying badly wounded outsidehis compartment. After rendering first aid, Smith returned to fight the radioroom fire.
Focke-Wulfs were now attackingthe formation and he occasionally fired the waist guns between firefighting andkeeping an eye on the wounded gunner. escaping oxygen fanned the flames tointense heat. Ammunition boxes stored near the radio began to explode and Smithheaved these through the gaping hole burnt in the fuselage side, or moved themaway from the flames.
For 90 minutes he fought thefires. Having used the last extinguisher he tried smothering the flames withclothing and, as a final gesture, urinated on the smoldering wreckage. Nearingthe English coast, Smith threw out all items of equipment he could in order tolessen the strain on the rear of the fuselage. Fire had so weakened thestructure there was a real danger that it might break up on landing.Fortunately, the fuselage held when Johnson landed it safely at Predannack,near Land\'s End.
The fire had been so intense thatsome metal parts of the camera, radio and gun mounts had melted. A few weekslater, the slight, 32-year-old ball turret gunner received his country\'shighest decoration for this action. While the three crew members that bailedout were never recovered and presumed lost at sea, Smith\'s efforts on that dayundoubtedly saved the lives of six others aboard his aircraft.[3]
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