Most dangerous position in a B-17

[FLYBOYJ]

YEP, I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN!

[Nonskimmer]

Crap! I missed it!

[CharlesBronson]

Related pictures.

















http://www.daveswarbirds.com/b-17/contents.htm

[FLYBOYJ]

YEP - SEEN THOSE AND THE GUYS IN THE BALL SURVIVED!

[DAVIDICUS]

Bomb Taxi said, "Waost Gunner was the most exposed, and would therefore have the highest casualties, but Id hate to be in the front. Id be *insert adjective here* myself when the fighters came in head-on!
"

To make matters worse, the closing rate between the fighter and bomber is added onto the velocity of the projectiles from the fighter's guns. If a head on attacking fighter is doing 340mph and your bomber is doing 230mph, that's an additional 830 feet per second. (About the velocity of a .45 ACP at the muzzle)

[Erich]

again as I said previously in this long thread,.....

the tail position

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i'm with Mr. E on this one............

[GT]

Update.

[P38 Pilot]

Guys the worst position in the bomber would have to be the ball gunner.

If the bomber were to crash land without its wills the poor guy would be crusshed!!!

Besides, he is exposed to flak at the bottom. He wouldnt know what hit

him! Or if he didnt have his safety strap on he would fall out of the turret!

At least the waist gunners would have a chance. In the movie [i] Memphis Bell,
The guy in the ball turret almost falls out of the bomber. Oh and ig the hatch
were too jam, and you had to bail put, he would go down with the plane.

[GT]

Update.

[P38 Pilot]

Wow, that guy was pretty lucky!

[poprune]

I had a friend (now dead) who served as a tail gunner in Lancs. He told me that he once sat in the same position in a B17 and found that he couldn't reach the controls properly because he had to spread his arms round a chunk of armour plate that prevented almost all moevent, too. He did not, he told me, want to be in there when being attacked by a fighter, because in his opinion just about all the gunner could do was pray or scream.

[Beni]

If i can choose a position in a b17 crew, i would choose to be the guy who refuel the plane...becouse I think all the position inside the plane were very dangerous. But must to be fantastic to shoot some fighters from the turrets....I dont know what to do....

[wmaxt]

According to the 8th Air Force web page the best position was the Bombardier then the top turret/Waist gunner. The worst was the Radio/Pilot. The Waist gunner position was twice as bad accounting for the fact there were two. Ball turret,Navigator, Co-Pilot were about the same. It must be noted that this is for the 95th BG and go as follows

Pilot 58kia 11wia
Co- Pilot 56kia 7 wia
Nav 56kia 15wia
Top T 47kia 29wia
Radio 58 kia 14wia
Ball 56kia 21wia
waist 102kia 45wia
tail 57kia 14wia

As you can see it doesn't matter much where you are if your inside the plane.

This site has the stats http://www.taphilo.com/history/8thaf/8aflosses.shtml

wmaxt

[FLYBOYJ]

Originally Posted by P38 Pilot

Guys the worst position in the bomber would have to be the ball gunner.

If the bomber were to crash land without its wills the poor guy would be crusshed!!!:

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! The Emerson Ball turret was a solid piece of heat treated aluminum forging that could probably be used as a boat anchor. By it's construction, it was naturally armored. On a B-17 the ball was located in the aft fuselage (Stations 6 & 7) just aft of a major bulkhead. The assembly was supported by a trapeze assembly inside the fuselage. During a crash, the fuselage would either break at that bulkhead or the turret would be pushed into the trapeze assembly. I've seen photos where the -17 made it down resting on the turret! Now does that mean a gunner would survive a crash in a ball turret? Probably not! If the armored glass shattered inward, well, I think I rather be shot with a 20mm.