Heroic Tale of a Tail Gunner

[CINDERS]

Try to imagine your in a B-17 and a ME-262 is coming at you with 4 x 30mm cannons and knowing your gun turrets cannot traverse fast enough to get them, a couple of those rounds through the nose and there is a good chance that the 4 crew are gone Pilot, Co-pilot, Bombardier and front upper turret gunner guess it was a terrible end.
The Red tails decided the only way to beat the Jets was to get line abreast and have them fly through a scatter gun effect of all those P-51 50 cals spitting lead a desperate solution to a desperate situation but no matter what I reckon 2 positions in bombers stood out for sheer guts Tail gunners in both the B-17 and Lanc the last a bit more because unless you had a chest chute on your parachute was outside your turret in the Lancs fuselage.
And the last would be the ball turret as you were surely hanging in space with not much between you and a very long drop to the ground either way all crews and fighter pilots had guts especially when you think of Schwienfurt and the Rhur valley

[Seaspriter]

Here's Dave Osborne's B-17 master log. http://www.91stbombardmentgroup.com/...ID/FORTLOG.pdf

Thanks Vincent.

This Log makes fascinating reading. I did a word search for my buddy, the tail gunner, Dick Abbott, but the log is sparse on actual names of crew.

However, there are many interesting stories. One that surprised me was plane #38-270 flying out of Argentia (Newfoundland) 21/8/41, "a week after attacked a U-boat. This was not damaged but the first US incident in which US bombs were dropped in anger, however the press never knew!;"

This was fully 2 months before the U-Boat 552 sinking of the U.S.S. Destroyer Reuben James* doing convoy duty between Argentia and Iceland in the same area at the end of October. In other words, we were at war with Germany weeks before Hitler declared war on Dec 8th, 1941, and Congress declared war on Dec 9th.

Keep the stories coming. Many thanks to the MilSurps Team for your contributions. The free world is grateful for the heroism of those many B-17 and Lancaster crews who gave their lives to stop the Hitlerian Monster.

Robert

* Remember the song with the lyrics: "Tell me 'What were their names?' Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James?" by the Weavers, Pete Seeger, and Johnny Horton. This was written just before the declaration of war to rally support against Germany.

[Mike Haas]

I agree the 91st log made facinating reading. I didn't know that Prez. LBJ had been in WW2 and came under fire while in a B-17 (see the log entry). Also this link

President Lyndon B. Johnson's Military Service

[Bob Womack]

Jablonski tells of Johnson going through a forced landing on an Australian sheep farm in B17D Alexander, the Swoose due to bad navigation and running out of fuel and provides a photo. Originally called "Ole Betsy," The Swoose got her name from her pilot who named her after the character in a popular song (half swan, half goose) because, after combat, she was repeatedly cobbled back together with parts from other wrecked B-17D models, including an entire tail module. She eventually became General Brett's private transport aircraft. After the war she was saved from the crusher by the efforts of Air Force Col. Frank Kurtz. In turn, she provided the name for Kurtz's daughter, famous actress, Swoozy Kurtz. The Swoose is currently at the Dayton AF museum being restored, but there is a huge kerfuffle about whether to restore her as "Ole Betsy" (which had no distinctive art) or The Swoose. Typical bureaucracy - do nothing.

Alexander, The Swoose


Check the subtitle:
http://forum.armyairforces.com/downl...?file=1;208043

Bob

[Seaspriter]

Great story Bob. Thank you.

I vote for "Swoose!" How about the rest of MilSurps Land?

IMHO, this should be a NO-BRAINER. Go for the glory, the passion, the courage, and the character -- all part of the SWOOSE story. As an amateur historian and writer, I know it's so often about the "story." Swoose has a story that our next generation will recall and thus help mold the character of our future nation. These B-17s and Lancs were not the glamour girls of air (like the fighter planes), but they were the battleships of courage and grit and commitment. We must treasure and preserve their stories as examples of what it means to be heroic and preserve freedom.

As a note: Some people take the act of "historic preservation" to such a purist's level that they strip the historical story out of the preservation. They become anal about bringing an artifact back to it's "original" form (hence the "Old Betsey" name") while blanching the aging and character and humanity out of the fabric of the piece. "Swoose" retains the story of the evolution of the plane. I have restored old houses, boats, furniture, cars, and guns. While debate is valuable, the issue is not just about "restoration" back to standard as it came out of the factory, but "preservation" of the evolution of the piece -- including its battle scars. It's why we don't want to take every ding, bruise, or modification out of our M-1s and Enfields -- they tell the story (this doesn't justify retaining Bubba blunders, however).

Keep the stories coming -- they are inspiring!

Robert

(BTW, if anyone is interested, here's a link to another fascinating story from two hundred years ago that demonstrates the tradition of courage: Dropbox - How the Nation was Saved 2nd Edition.pdf )