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Jarrell, who served in the Army Air Forces, provided the following explanatory note: . A ball turret was a Plexiglas sphere set into the belly of a B-17, B-24, B-25, B-32 and inhabited by two .50 caliber machine guns and one man, a short small man.
Since this turret is of the ball type, the gunner moves with his guns and sight in elevation and azimuth by means of control handles. Among the earlier designs was the Martin 250SH bow turret of the PBM-3 twin-engined patrol flying boat which had many points of similarity in design and action.
Immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack, Magee joined the United States Army Air Forces and was assigned as a ball turret gunner on a B-17 bomber.. On January 3, 1943, his Flying Fortress—B-17F-27-BO, 41-24620, nicknamed "Snap!
#34 In 1943, Ball Turret Gunner Alan Magee’s B-17 Bomber Was Hit By Flak And Began To Spin Out Of Control. He Fell Over Four Miles Without A Parachute Before Crashing Through The Glass Roof Of A ...
Ball turret gunner Alan Eugene Magee (1919–2003), though suffering 27 shrapnel wounds, bails out (or is thrown from wreckage) without his chute at ~20,000 feet (6,100 m), loses consciousness due to altitude, freefall plunges through glass roof of the Gare de Saint-Nazaire and is found alive but with serious injuries on floor of depot:saved by ...
Ball turret gunner Alan Eugene Magee (13 January 1919 – 20 December 2003), though suffering 27 shrapnel wounds, bails out (or is thrown from wreckage) without his parachute at ~20,000 feet (6,100 m), loses consciousness due to altitude, freefall plunges through glass roof of the Gare de Saint-Nazaire and is found alive but with serious ...
"More than a third of the 18,000 B-24 bombers produced during World War II were shot down, and most air crewmen did not survive past seven missions."
The aircraft on which Sgt. Mathies was serving as flight engineer and ball turret gunner was attacked by a squadron of enemy fighters with the result that the co-pilot was killed outright, the pilot wounded and rendered unconscious, the radio operator wounded and the plane severely damaged.