@@skyblox-eo5seso? My great grandpa, who happened to be a ball turret gunner, is still alive and well. But thanks for explaining what great grandpa means I guess.
My dad was bombadier on "Old Baldy" and flew his 25 missions out of Port Moresby, New Guinea in late1943, early 1944. He had flak wounds and some metal in his right hand and arm until his passing in 1996. Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, raised 6 children. School teacher on Long Island for 22 years. Hero in every sense, to me, and to many of whom his life touched. He was not "religious" in any obvious way. Couldn't quote you scripture. But deeply Christian in his charitable behavior. Shared everything freely and could not stand to see someone in need. Never a good businessman, always giving what he had away, up to and including the day he died. Love, sorrow,pride and joy. My son was born in 1996, 6 after my dad passed. I became a dad, just as I lost my dad. Honor, glory, love, pride; I have in abundance of all for you dad.
I thought that plane looked familiar. Honestly , I can't think of a more bad ass way to go out though. "Their fort was hit by a fighter at low altitude and went down, no chutes."
@@spencerquimby4726Masters of Air, anyone? Lol. I flew on Texas Raiders in June of 2017 and knew Ken; one of the airmen that died. I was 24 and it was my first ride in an airplane ever. I’ll always remember it.
RIP to the guys who flew her, I remember when I was a kid living in Deer Park, TX I would see her flying around because I was on the flight path to Ellington AFB. It's kinda surreal knowing that I won't ever see her up there again unless it's on video. 😢 I saw her fly past on the day she crashed working for amazon. Heard the news when I got home.
I flew on Texas Raiders in 2017 and knew one of the airmen that died; Ken. I was 24 at the time and it was my first ever flight in an airplane. It was an unforgettable experience.
A thing that strikes me after seeing a few of these videos recently is actually how relatively small these aircraft are. The inside looks so claustrophobic. 10 men inside.
Relatively cramped inside, little armor around (some of) the crew, and the tail guns appear to be open to the ambient air. Plus that tail gun entry hatch looks rather low to the ground. The lack of any kind of armor for the tail gunner must have been a little scary.
Американские летчики смело и отчаянно дрались с фашистами и очень помогли с Ленд-Лизом Советскому народу ❤ Вечная память всем ветеранам той страшной войны. С уважением из таежной Сибири❤
So many young soldiers crawled into those knowing they would never come out. May they rest in peace. Thank you to all that have their lives so that we may live ours
Ww2 was to stop the nazis and free the jews. Not you. Nobody fought anything that dealt with Your personal freedom cause in america we already had and have it. So why say the prefabricated regurgitated shi "" oh thanks for your service and our freedom"" you sound like a veterns day post card
When I lived in Oregon back in the 80s, the only B 17 that was restored at the time, came to Bend, along with a P 51 Mustang. Paid for a ride in the Mustang. WOW, what a bird to fly in. The B 17 was on show. I'm 6'2" and i managed to get in all the gun turrets. That must have real scary shooting the guns, fighting for your life and the guys onboard !!! I was in the Navy for 4 yrs during Viet Nam, but after walking through that plane, i had a very deep and profound respect for the guys who flew those planes during WWII.
My Father in-law was a tail gunner on B17’s. I asked him if he was ever scared. He said “You don’t know what scared is until your rounds aren’t going where you want them to because the barrels are worn smooth and you have a fighter coming in on you shooting what looks like flaming basketballs at you. Then you hear a loud clapping noise that turns out to be the cheeks of your ass slapping together because you’re shaking so hard.” L.G. Phelps, rest in peace.
@@bobpaulino4714 If they knew a belly landing would be necessary, obviously the ball gunner would leave his station. In that situation, his services wouldn’t be needed anyway. What do you think the Captain gonna say…? “No! You stay at your post while I land this plane on top of you!”
That's a really nice look into the rear tail gunner position. For what ever reason the lower ball turit gets all the love and not one person in their right mind would volunteer for that job. 😊
RIP. These men were the greatest generation. Their sacrifices are why we are here today. They came together to fight an enemy. Now is the time that we come together and stop all the BS that is going on in our government. There are too many evil groups and countries that are trying to destroy us . Let these soldiers RIP knowing that what they did for humanity was not in vain.
"That was my tail gunner, Ol' Johnny McGee. He was a high school teacher from New Orleans, and he had my back right through the day we left." ~ Jamey Johnson
This was the B-17 Texas Raiders, which crashed last year after a P-63 Aircobra collided with it at an airshow, sending both aircraft into the ground, killing all on board both planes.
They say they were an easy target because they were slow but the fact that they gave turrets in front bottom and back and the sides is truly impressive for the years we don’t even make that on ospray planes or anything else
In the 135 aces of the Regia aeronautica [ italian royal airforce] quite the majority of them had a B17 , at least , in their list of victories . But the most astonishing thing to understand their braveness , was that the fighter used was the Màcchi C202 , which had only 2 machine guns 13,7 mm and no cannon . Against that fortress and it's squadron it's really astonishing to believe where the willingness to defend your own sky made them doing unbelievable things .
@@jacobmccandles1767 Well we can argue for years talking about , however they had low rate of Fire [ 700 RPM] but mix ed and effective ammo incendiary, explosive, HET , universal all of them in the same belt . That's Why despite all circumstances, the Macchi C 202 became the aces plan and scored relevantly well before the next plans generation: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dNORhRJD5fI.htmlsi=5_DHYU3ZZL-0YsR5
@@piersp38 È un film di propaganda prodotto durante la guerra e ci sono delle riprese molto belle ed interessanti girate nella Regia Accademia Aeronautica di Pozzuoli con le classi dei cadetti.
Neighbor was a WW2 vet tail gunner. Described seeing the blue eyes of the Luftwaffe fighter pilots as they swarmed by. Got shot down and spent time as a POW. Man went through mental hell.
Forte e resistente muitas vezes retornava para a base faltando pedaços de asas e deriva com rombo na fuselagem ! O Bombardeiro favorito da 2G Mundial !😊😊👍👍🇧🇷🇧🇷
Thank you to all the men who died in that chair. So you can drink your coffee and talk about this country owes you something. They died so that none of us has to live under the boot heal of true Fascism and Tyranny.
Who knows. Once Hitler won he mightve became a chill dude. Or made one last command. Leaders don't exist listeners, learners and laborers do and we are all each. No pyramid inflation or taxation. All peoples nation not all for one. All for all civilization.
My uncle was in a ball turret; he had insane aim after the war; he could destroy clay pigeons for days straight without missing one with a pistol. I can only assume he gained that power being tossed around in that ball turret thousands of feet in the air while firing a huge machine gun. Yes he ended up with Parkinson's due to that.
I was able to see THE Memphis Bell in a museum, they are planning on restoring it by this October and try to get it to fly! I can’t wait to go see it again!
All the guys who fought for their countries are true hero's and certainly cut from a special cloth. They knew the risks and that the odds were against them, but proudly, they defended their country. Brave brave souls that should never be forgotten.
RIP. These men were the greatest generation. Their sacrifices are why we are here today. They came together to fight an enemy. Now is the time that we come together and stop all the BS that is going on in our government. There are too many evil groups and countries that are trying to destroy us . Let these soldiers RIP knowing that what they did for humanity was not in vain.
Imagine sitting in a tight flying Tim can with 2 mounted machine guns in front of you while bf-109 fighters are chasing and firing at you 40,000 ft in the air
interesting fact, the B17 tail windshield is made of polycarbonate transparent plastic, this innovation helps aviators, because the glass often broke into fragments during the battle and caused inconvenience to the crew.
The “tail gunner”, only job worse was “ball turrent gunner” the blister on the bottom rear of B-17 Flying Fortress. Not many of those guys made it back from ww2. RIP & ty for your sacrifice for our freedom.
Your first movie before private ryan. To show the battle correctly when the flak is so thick you can get out of the plane and walk on it. And the messhersmits and fokke wolfs were more deadly than a water moccasin in a texas creek. Watch memphis belle. Just a bunch of kids. My gosh they were brave.
Here's to lookin at you, lookin at me, how did we come this far, must be bada...tata..destiny. But seriously though, it must have been terrifying on both sides of that mount.
The belly gunner was the most dangerous. If the plane was going down you had to get out of the ball shaped turret before jumping out to parachute down.
