The gunners of the B-17 Flying Fortress were a different breed. These men endured unimaginably low temperatures, near-constant bombardment by heavy ordnance and cramped conditions to do a job that wasn’t suited for any human being. The ball gunners were especially vulnerable, locked into a cramped space on the underbelly of the plane while flak erupted all around and enemy fighters roared by with guns blazing.
If something went wrong — like if the landing gear couldn’t deploy — the ball gunner would almost certainly be sacrificed for the safety of the rest of the crew, leading to a terrifying and agonizing death.
Despite their obvious shortcomings in design, the B-17 ball gun was an essential engineering marvel that helped preserve untold lives throughout the course of World War II.
A ball gunner climbs into the B-17 Sperry ball turret; 8th Air Force. Photo courtesy of U.S. Army archives.
The ball gun seems like a simple design. It’s a sphere installed with two .50 caliber guns and attached to the bottom of an aircraft. However, this gun was precisely engineered so that it would minimally affect the aerodynamics of the plane while also being just short enough that it wouldn’t scrape against the tarmac during takeoff and landing. The guns had to be set to their maximum angle of 85 degrees, almost parallel with the bottom of the plane, in order for the plane to smoothly take off.
The gunner wasn’t in the sphere for the entire flight. This would have been extremely uncomfortable and wildly impractical. The entire gun was about 3.5 feet in diameter, meaning the gunner had to cram in there and sit in the fetal position for as long as he was protecting the plane. Additionally, the gun had a separate air supply that could last for about two hours. This separate air supply was vital, as the 360-degree movement of the gun would have caused kinks in the supply line that would have asphyxiated the gunner. This line was fed by a small tank attached to the mounting and could be replaced by the waist gunner in the main body of the plane.
The space within the ball gun was so cramped that the gunner couldn’t wear a parachute while locked into position. They could wear a harness to strap on their parachute, but the parachute was hanging in the fuselage of the plane above. If the plane was going down, it was likely too late for the gunner, who would have had to rotate the ball gun back into its proper position, lock it in place, open the hatch, and climb back into the plane and attach their chute all while the aircraft was likely in the middle of a flaming doom spiral.
The B-17 was an open-air aircraft. This meant the temperature inside of the plane was whatever the temperature was outside of the plane. This is a far cry from modern passenger aircraft with pressurized climate control. The B-17 and the ball gun could reach temperatures as low as minus-50 degrees Fahrenheit. To manage these temperatures, flight crews wore insulated leather flight suits with fur-lined boots. An external suit with heating coils was also worn, which could be hooked into the plane’s electrical system. This system also extended into the ball gun to feed the suit and the controls within, including the gun’s targeting sights and gun controls.
Controlling the ball gun was a full-body experience. Two handles with firing buttons controlled the rotation of the turret and were mounted just below the gunsight in front of the gunner’s head. Pushing the handles had inverted controls for left and right, while pushing forward would lower the guns and pulling back would raise them. The gunner had a push-to-talk button for his microphone to communicate with the rest of the crew, which was located next to the heel rest of his right foot and operated by his foot.
Manual gun selector switches were mounted near the gunsights. These were effectively safety switches and were vital to the operation of the guns. Due to the heavy mittens gunners needed to wear during a sortie, it was easy to unintentionally press the firing buttons on the handles. The selectors were switched off until the gunner was ready to fire.
Before the gun could be fired, it had to be charged. You’ve seen this in movies when a character dramatically cocks a rifle, racking a round into the chamber. This was a complicated thing to do in the cramped space of the ball gun, as a gunner couldn’t generate the force required to charge it with a straight pull. Instead, engineers devised a pulley system that generated extra force and allowed the gunner to pull crossways, as if they were rowing a boat.
Due to the angles at which the gun was able to fire, engineers had to be crafty to preserve the plane’s propellers. The guns could point at an angle that would destroy the propellers when firing, so a little extra care had to be taken by the designers of the ball gun.
A cam at the front was rigged to the B-17 mounted at the front of the ball turret — this was stationary and would not move with the turret. A pin at the head of the ball turret would touch the cam and interrupt the circuit, stopping the ability of the guns to fire. As you might have guessed, this was precisely situated to prevent the guns from firing on their own propellers — however, that system didn’t preserve the open bomb bay doors.
Looking for more? Your local library has a comprehensive collection of WWII books, particularly on aircraft.
Stay curious, 7B.
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