re: I've seen some pretty amazing stories about the B-17 but....

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Reading about the ball turret gunner being stuck while the others had to abandon and crash land the aircraft makes your hairs stand on edge.

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I've always been impressed at the level of bravery it took to crew a B-17, especially before the advent of long range fighter escorts. But of all the guys on these bombers, the dude in the lonely ball turret position strike me of having to be made from a special cut. Imagine not only being at over 20,000 feet in lumbering bomber having to fly straight and keep in formation while much faster and more maneuverable fighters raked your plane from every side. Then put of top of that, you're totally enclosed and isolated in this tiny ball so small you've got your knees up to your shoulders and you're slung underneath this massive plane. I mean, look at this.....




And yes, he's totally enclosed in there. Here's a view looking at the ball turret from inside the plane...


Doing what they did took some serious guts.