Issue 4.13
There was a gunner in another crew who carried around a piece of flack that had the letter and four digits of his name and serial number on it. For instance, mine to mark my property was W5354. Once we had an 88 mm shell enter ‘Queenie’ from the bottom between the pilot and the top turret gunner, a space of about 2 feet and exit the top without exploding. Thank God for slave labor because it was estimated that 25% of those shells were duds. Another crew had two dud shells go through within 30 seconds of each other. Another factor was that although Germany had many advanced weapons, they did not have the proximity fuse which would explode when a shell was close to metal. All of their shells were set to explode at a pre-set altitude or on contact.
Probably one of the most severely damaged B-I7s to ever return and land was 004, it took a direct hit right at the ball turret. The ball turret went flying with the gunner still in it of course without a parachute, the starboard side was blown out and the top was missing. All that held the front to the tail was the one remaining side. Three crewmembers were killed outright and at least two others wounded severely enough that the pilot chose to try and land that wreck. It was a wonder that it held together. The Pilot was awarded the Silver Star for his efforts. 004 never flew again but was a “Hanger Queen” and was used only for parts.
Each new crew coming in has about two weeks before flying their first combat mission.
One new crew came into our barracks and during their two weeks time, I got to be men~ with one who was the tail gunner on their crew. He was the son of a Baptist minister. He was also very ambitious and rustled lumber from ammunition crates and built himself a rudimentary dresser complete with mirror, hooks and drawers. He was prepared for a long stay. My mend was very anxious about his first mission. He didn’t return from his first mission because his crew was shot down on their first mission.
The reason the B-17 could fly so high (for 1944) was the secret metal alloy that the supercharger, located at the exhaust of each engine turned as a fantastic rate of speed and so compressed the thin air so the engines could run at a very high altitude. There was one: problem with these spinning “buckets”. If one was hit by a bullet or a piece of flack, it would explode from the centrifugal force and fly in all horizontal directions at a level even with the ball turret. A number of ball turret gunners were killed from exploding “buckets” but not this gunner.