Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “Training B-17 Flying Fortress Gunners for Masters of the Air” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/captain-dale-dye-masters-of-the-air/.
Training B-17 Flying Fortress Gunners for Masters of the Air
- Thread starter Mike H.
- Start date
HayesGreener
Ronin
There was a skeet range on every Air Force base. Skeet was encouraged as a sport as it taught pilots and gun crews about leading the target.
HayesGreener
Ronin
I truly enjoyed that seriesHello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “Training B-17 Flying Fortress Gunners for Masters of the Air” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/captain-dale-dye-masters-of-the-air/.
Scottbconditt
Operator
Absolutely AWESOME story and experience you shared here. As a filmmaker and fan of this series, this was such a treat to read. Thank you.
Recusant
Hellcat
My dad was a combat air crewman during the last months of WWII and trained to use the .50 cals aboard the planes he crewed. For practice he got stand on the fantail of the Guadalcanal and use a shotgun to shoot seagulls.
SimonRL
Hellcat
I’ve had the pleasure of going up in a B-17 and movies and TV just don’t do justice to what it was like on a B-17. The space is unbelievably tight, even in the body where the tail gunners were, and the space from the cockpit back through the bomb racks is clearly designed for 145lb twenty-year-olds. For the Hun it was clearly a case of shooting fish in a barrel.
I foolishly popped my head out of the plane behind the top turret and watched this brilliant flash of silver and realized that my brand new, $600 pair of glasses were about to become the latest casualty to end up in a foreign field somewhere in occupied territory southwest of Dallas.
I foolishly popped my head out of the plane behind the top turret and watched this brilliant flash of silver and realized that my brand new, $600 pair of glasses were about to become the latest casualty to end up in a foreign field somewhere in occupied territory southwest of Dallas.
A shift Kamikaze
Alpha
Thanks for the recognition you have made possible for the Bomber groups Gunners!
Had a Great uncle, Bill Ferguson, who was a waist gunner on a 17! Have a photo of him with his Crew!
Those were some mighty brave souls!
All but gone now but Never Forgotten
Thanks again
A Shift Kamikaze
Had a Great uncle, Bill Ferguson, who was a waist gunner on a 17! Have a photo of him with his Crew!
Those were some mighty brave souls!
All but gone now but Never Forgotten
Thanks again
A Shift Kamikaze
CCJ
Operator
This truly was the greatest generation. Modern life with all its gadgets to take make nearly everything easier has also stolen away our tenacity and grit. Hardship is wondering how long it going to take the repair guy to get your internet working again. The modern world has made us complacent, sometimes lazy, and socially isolated. I have stories from my Uncle, who served in WWII in the motor pool because he was deemed too old for front line duties. The other in the pool called him "pops" (he was 33). He wound up on the front lines anyway during the "battle of the bulge" and was kept there until he was wounded near the end of the war.... lots of hair raising stories (I will save those for another time). My grand father told of a time his dad stole him away from his mother at age 6 and he never saw her again. Took him and his bother over the Rockies in a model T (1918) and, at age 12, ran away to make his own way in life. Never saw his dad again after that. I shutter to think what people would be like if life became truly difficult again. It bring out the best in some... but I fear it would bring out the worst in most today.
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I remember an old "60 Minutes" episode from years ago where Andy Rooney was talking about "Bravery" during his time as a War Correspondent during WW2. He (Andy) never thought of himself as brave while comforting a gunner in a jammed belly turret when coming back from a mission. The B17 was shot-up so bad the landing gear couldn't lock.
Andy started to tearfully recount how that brave gunner knew he was going to die that day and that defined BRAVERY!
God Bless.
Andy started to tearfully recount how that brave gunner knew he was going to die that day and that defined BRAVERY!
God Bless.
Cedric
Custom
My uncle was a tail gunner on a B-17. After the war he became a champion trap shooter.
Smiledon#57
Alpha
Memphis Bell was a long line of Hollywood disappointments related to war movies. Once bitten twice shy mind set. Glad that this seems to be more realistic than Hollywood.Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “Training B-17 Flying Fortress Gunners for Masters of the Air” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/captain-dale-dye-masters-of-the-air/.