A documentary that shows in detail the spherical turrets of the B-17 bombers

@DefAviation ES 7·14·2024 · 18:50 0

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was one of the most famous bombers of World War II, with 12,677 units built.

An excellent documentary shows the inside of the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber
Maynard H. Smith: The heroic act of the ball turret gunner of a B-17 bomber

Starting in July 1940, the B-17E variant of this bomber introduced a spherical turret in its lower part, also known as a ball turret or Sperry turret, as it was designed by the Sperry Corporation company. from Brooklyn, New York. This turret was equipped with two 12.7 mm Browning AN/M2 machine guns, located on both sides of the turret. The gunner was sitting in an uncomfortable fetal position, which required a pulley system to be installed to load the machine guns.

This position was especially dangerous and its gunner was the only B-17 crew member who was not wearing a parachute, as space inside the turret was very limited. The turret was especially expensive because it had a very advanced computerized aiming system for its time, which made calculations to offer the best firing solution at all times. The turret could be rotated 360º and its machine guns could lower to a position perpendicular to the fuselage of the plane, but the turret had to be placed in a position of 85º and locked for landing.

There was a ball turret gunner who received the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military decoration. He was Maynard Harrison "Snuffy" Smith and we already saw his story here. As a curiosity, short gunners were chosen for the positions of these turrets, since the taller ones could not fit in her. A few days ago, Blue Paw Print published an excellent video showing the structure and operation of these turrets, with high quality images and a wide range of information. The video has an audio track in English:

You can see some screenshots of the video here, made by computer and with a high level of graphics.