Issue 45.13
Once we were on the bomb run in our Flying Fortress, the B-17, and we were approaching our target and the switch was set by the bombardier to open the bomb bay doors. I, in the lower ball turret was waiting for the doors to swing open but nothing happened, I reported on the inter-com that the doors remained closed. Pilot to radio operator: “Wally, look and see what is going on with the bomb bay doors?” Wally snapped on a walk around oxygen bottle and opened his door to the bomb bay to take a look. Wally reported back. “The doors are frozen together. It looks like someone peed on the doors and they froze shut.” Pilot to Wally: “There’s an ax hanging up on the wall. See if you can crack the ice but be sure and don’t run out of oxygen while you are doing that. Make sure you have your chest pack parachute snapped on in case you lose your footing on the eight inch wide catwalk in the bomb bay that may cause you to fall out of the plane.” Wally got that chore done without running out of oxygen. There is no gage on that small tank so when you are out of oxygen, you are out of oxygen. Wally got that chore done and got back to his radio room desk. Our pilot, Robert Parnell, gave the entire crew a lecture on how to go to the bathroom at 65 degrees below zero. B-17’s do not have a rest room or even a toilet. There is merely a relief tube by the catwalk in the bomb bay. When we are on our way to high altitude and is not yet cold, even then it is tricky to use that small funnel but at a high altitude, when the temperature is 65 degrees below zero, one small slip will send a guy, after the mission, to the base hospital with a very embarrassing problem. Our pilot told us something’ that we all already knew. He said to use a cardboard box and then throw it out when the bomb bay doors are open. Even if we have to do more than just pee, still use the cardboard box. We all thought Berlin was a good place to throw one of those boxes out. I in the ball turret didn’t have that luxury. Instead I had a cast iron bladder. Some ball turret gunners used an apparatus that some fighter pilots use. Now that all members of the crew are now “House Broken” we can get on with fighting a war.
Because I am the armorer on the crew, it was my job to arm the fuses on the bombs. Each bomb has a nose and a tail fuse. To do this, while we are still gaining altitude and are not yet on oxygen, I walk out on the eight inch catwalk in the bomb bay and pull the pins on both front and back of each bomb. There are bomb racks both on the inside that is close to the cat walk and there are bomb racks against the outside wall of the fuselage. The inside bombs are ease to pull the pins to arm them but the outside bomb racks are very difficult to reach. If the arming pins are not pulled, then the bombs on the ground are just so much scrap iron.
The B-17 got its name by a reporter who witnessed about its first flight and called it a Flying
Fortress and the name stuck. Of all of the different airplanes built in the last one hundred and ten years, the Flying Fortress is the most famous. There are many reasons for this. She is beautiful, she is tough. She came home many, many times on a literal wing and a prayer. She fought a tough war in spite of high loses. Numerous movies and books were produced about her, and she brought me home safely thirty-five times.
Sam Wyrouck can be contacted at 801-707-2666.