Sperry Ball Turret

42" ball of hellfire on the B-17 Flying Fortress

[@houdinibat1]

My dad flew the Ball on a B-17 on 28 missions. Their plane was hit during dad's 28th mission. A 20mm shell from a Me-109 missed his turret by less then a foot, dad said it made a hole as big as a wash bucket. The same shell screwed up the oxygen system and dad had to come out of the turret. The pilot was bringing the plane down to a lower altitude so the crew could breath when either a wing tank blew or a burst of flak which made the whole left side of the just break apart from the rest of the plane. Dad and the left waist gunner just fell out of the plane. Dad had put on his parachute when he got out of the turret. Spent 11months and 1 day as a POW.

[@joncrow3228]

Thanks for sharing the amazing story! Glad your dad survived.

[@rrosski]

He’s badass

[@tonyhelliwell321]

My Dad flew in the Vengeance diver bomber as the rear gunner in Burma and later the Blackburn Roc dive bomber in the UK Coastal Command. Can you imagine being alive in a dive with a dead pilot, just waiting to crash..😶😳

[@nathanle2376]

My flew a plane too he flew a AC-47

[@jimgouwens9930]

Incredible! Thank you for this.

[@AweEmperorofChickenKilling]

as cool as the ball turret is I'm glad I'll never have to operate one. Respect to the men who did

[@hogdog51]

Those brave men had balls bigger than the one they were in . Thank you for your service .

[@Magallanes_]

@rum shot from Argentina thanks for all

[@thinkablebaileylim6168]

thaaaaaaaat’s why it was so cramped in there

[@fredblonder7850]

Weirdest ball-turret story I heard was of a B-17 returning across the English Channel. It collided with the plane above and hit the water. The pilot took it to full-throttle and got airborne again. The ball-turret gunner survived his brief underwater adventure.

[@angerybigdaddy8541]

Is that true?

[@fredblonder7850]

@@angerybigdaddy8541 I did not personally witness it, but I heard the story from a speaker at the Smithsonian, so I give it a fair amount of credibility.

[@makeitsonumberone1358]

Theres a story on you tube about the b17 that landed itself 👻 true story to.

[@flyingfortressrc1794]

Great video of my favorite Lady, The Yankee Lady.. When my Dad's 17 went down the ball turret gunner was able to get out of the ball after being badly wounded but died before he could bail out of the plane. The greatest generation for sure..

[@DoomTrooperTV]

I was a .50 cal gunner in Iraq on a Humvee. The .50 is a beast to operate, maintain, load and fire. Even in an open air turrent like i was. I cannot imagine operating TWO of them in an enclosed space like that. The lubricant and smoke that must have filled that turret was probably absolutely choking. Insane.

[@geoffreyrichardson8738]

Great editing, the still footage made it easy to appreciate what those brave boys put up with.

[@1337fraggzb00N]

800 rounds and after that you just sit and pray. These men were heroes of their own kind.

[@MajorCaliber]

The waist gunners could reload you from above. ;')

[@PlasmaCoolantLeak]

I remember in my junior English class a poem called "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner." I was the only student in the class who understood what happened to the gunner.

[@GTOAviator]

You wanna talk about loud. Ears ringing after the first burst.

[@joncrow3228]

Yea! I’ve got plenty of experience firing the M2, and after every battle my ears felt like they were bleeding. I’ve also fired M4s in a tunnel, the confined space made it one of the loudest things I’ve ever heard. I can’t imagine firing 2 M2s in a confined space like that. No amount of hearing protection would negate the massive sound that must have produced.

[@asafgl4281]

That ball turret was a death sentence ... No armour, no parachute, if struck or gamed, or no one in crew can help him when plane out of control, that's the worst battle station...

[@starguard4122]

Agreed. Even worse than being a Tanker or Infantry Flamethrower

[@asafgl4281]

@@starguard4122 Infantry is best, u are so small and none main target, that you can all ways hide, play dead, in a case of tankers, that depends what position you are in which tank you are in...commander and gunner are most vulnerable, front of turret and commander are most likely to hit..

[@jeffworcester1374]

It was actually statistically the safest position on the ship due to the small cross section, albeit the most frightening.

[@asafgl4281]

@@jeffworcester1374 safe???? No armour...lot of flexiglass...if b17 was out of control, there is no way that any body will help him out , at the moment he need to traverse turret downward And some of crew to open hatch... Then climb through the tripod that holds instruments, get stand on deck Wearing the perechoot and then jump out from where he need to fight to reach out???? No way its safe position... Only if he had the choot inside wearing it , he would be need to traverse guns up , blow the hatch out and bailed out from ball turret directly... They didn't think about the soldier inside... Each one need to have a quick and safe way to bail out...allmost same story for upper turret, and tail gunner all the rest can go through the bomb bay door

[@jeffworcester1374]

@@asafgl4281 It was statistically the least deadly poition on the aircraft. This is not an opinion it is factual.

[@dereksevers9187]

How about that airplane what a beautiful piece of art that thing is gorgeous I bet you those engines sound awesome

[@mikejordan8259]

It's 70 Years too late but they should've made the Ball Turret so it could jettison with a Parachute.

[@fredblonder7850]

Agreed. That was the first thing I thought.

[@alvaro2338]

Mike Jordan .......and you can shoot 😎

[@fredblonder7850]

@@alvaro2338 You mean shoot stuff on the way down? What would the recoil do if you were dangling at the end of a parachute? You’d probably wind up spinning out of control.

[@alvaro2338]

Fred Blonder sorry Sir, it was a joke. A lot of respect for that guys.

[@fredblonder7850]

@@alvaro2338 I understand. In all seriousness though, it is infuriating that there was no proper ejection mechanism for the ball-turret. I’m thinking: put the ’chute in the space beneath the gunner’s knees. When he ejects, the turret shell splits apart and the chute deploys. There’s all sorts of details to be worked out regarding how far you allow it to fall before deploying, which would depend on your altitude and such.

[@jackstrawwichita571]

My Grand Dad waz a B 17 pilot. General Jacob Edward Smart. He was shot down on his 26th mission coming of a bombing run on a Me-109 assembly plant over Venernustat. Austria. He survived.

[@nathanjones173]

25 and you went home.

[@MajorCaliber]

@@nathanjones173 Probably have to go a bit "above and beyond" to be a General, eh wot? ;')

[@MajorCaliber]

Trying to zap those enemy fighters before they ever got off the ground--smart.

[@dr.z1657]

3:40 😳 Imagine being told over the radio that they’re sorry, but you were going to die upon landing...and then having to _wait for it_ as you watched the ground close in. Makes it even more egregious that the USAAF proceeded to do _nothing_ with the patent & royalty rights they stole/confiscated from Preston Tucker for his electrically powered, remote controlled gun turret. I guess I can understand it perhaps not being feasible to make these turrets ‘jettisonable’ due to over-complexity, or armored due to weight, but it seems kinda inexcusable that they didn’t at least provide these brave gunners with a freakin’ parachute. With the low position on the fuselage and the aft-facing hatch, it definitely would have been possible for them to bailout in an emergency. That, or they could have easily designed in a secondary, emergency hatch at the bottom that would allow the gunner to be ejected whilst still strapped to the seat.

[@rohncarver3585]

not sure if my comment makes much sense but, I have not seen that video mentioned with the ball turret gunner, though I doubt I'd fit in one back when they were in use; I'm surprised they didn't have some kind of dead man's drop option where you could just flat out detach the whole ball just let the thing drop. may be suicide since its harder to get out or you'd be bouncing around like crazy upon your flight crews emergency landing, I would take that option over being ground to death under an aircraft though.

[@heroicaknight4735]

They wouldn't fit with a parachute on. If they made the turret bigger, it would probably mess with the plane's aerodynamics, be too expensive, and, most importantly, present a larger target for the enemy. So it was really a lose-lose situation for the guys who got in there.

[@CurtisDrew1]

Often wondered why they didn't just make the ball turrent jettisionable and put some parachute ring attachments on the turrent. That way the gunner could be dropped while still in the ball but have a parachute to lower him somewhat saflely. At least giving him a chance! Of course being dropped off the plane over water would be a big drawback... The B 36's had remote controlled turrents IIRC.

[@MajorCaliber]

4 peeps, incl. the OP, who are telling us they are NOT Mechanical Engineers, without actually saying it. The ball-turret gunners DID have a personal parachute, but many could not fit inside the ball whilst wearing it. Though many BT gunners died, in obviously horrible ways, it was, in FACT, the safest position on both B-17 and B-24.

[@glynmatthews6697]

More fortunate if you were in the B-24 Liberatror- it had a retractable ball turret on some variants .

[@dennisaston3551]

That must have been quite the experience when firing. Twin 50’s right next to your head

[@Sidekick_Snowman]

WHAT'D YOU SAY?? EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[@deltacomet5203]

One of my friend’s grandparents was a ball turret gunner. Must have been terrifying.

[@robtankbuster5215]

Wow that was some brave men!

[@gregorywelk3344]

Love your syntax

[@BCboy65]

Much prefer the ball turret on the B-24! It was retractable!!

[@thomasmerriett4288]

Makes me glad I'm a big guy, cuz my big ass wouldn't even attempt to get in that thing. Be like trying to get a 10lb ham into a 5lb bag.

[@yanni2112]

I'm 5'6" I probably would have got the Duty

[@raymondyee2008]

Memories of “Memphis Belle” the movie come to mind.

[@tylerbonser7686]

Well done. Thanks

[@starguard4122]

and to think that if he got killed, once the plane landed, the ground crew would wash out his remains with a hose

[@MajorCaliber]

That was just a poem... don't get carried away. ;')

[@Br4m76]

0:55 like a baby in the womb.

[@robertcampbelljr.3195]

That's the ALUMINUM OVERCAST!!!

[@jeffworcester1374]

Indeed. At Oshkosh.

[@mrshadow5132]

Im getting hit by claustrofhobia

[@Imnotyourdoormat]

great video... although cramped the Boeing manual recommended 6'2 as the height limit for the ball turret.

[@desertdragon2397]

Whew. Balls. The ball turret gunners had big ones.

[@0p036]

Can't see there in Japan.I'm so jealous!

[@ciberthej]

You can see some B-29’s in action in Japan.

[@GrayWolf-pv5uj]

自分もこのボール銃塔めっちゃ好きです！日本でも見れるといいんですがね〜… I love the ball turret too! I wish I could see one here in Japan...

[@0p036]

@@GrayWolf-pv5uj ですね～

[@jameswoolley7421]

ONE GOOD THING OF THE BALL TURRET, THERE WAS MORE ARMOR PLATTING THERE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE ON THE PLANE SO I WAS TOLD.

[@your_royal_highness]

I would be terrified to get in one

[@tonycerino9645]

Tough guys back then!! There's no way I'd get in there..

[@ricardoleyton4913]

Cuando veremos la serie de los pilotos de los aviones B-17 MASTER OF THE AIR.?? ..de los productores de la serie belica BANDA DE HERMANOS..

[@Yeeter_Inbound]

Was this at oshkosh? I was there last year and I remember seeing this b17!

[@jeffworcester1374]

Yes, 2019.

[@pattykuvshin]

Those things were designed to be operated by Hobbits

[@AngeliqueKaga]

That airplane was likely too get you home, even if damaged and flying on two engines.

[@Scottocaster6668]

A clostrophobics worst nightmare

[@stephenpowell5912]

That's what is discribed as Claustrophobic,Such a tragedy for those Ball Turret Gunners Stuck in this confined space all on their own trying to fend off Enemy Fighter planes to The Freezing cold Temperatures if this got hit , Appreciate those brave heroes of The greatest Generation who flew this bomber but felt for the poor souls stuck in the Speery Ball Turret.R I P to those who died in Combat stuck in this confined space 😪🙏💔

[@bratskienozi]

Тяжело ему там было. Крутой мужик.

[@Datadog-1]

The triggers actually both fire both guns

[@davehorwath763]

Must have been freezing!

[@sophiemilton5939]

What, they could not make this turret in a way that left the gunner outside the ball? Sat above it and shooting through a periscope type arrangement? Then they could have made the ball smaller and more aerodynamic too. - I know the optics would have taken some working out but even so ......... Getting into that thing looks like a death-sentence to me. I salute the brave men who did get into it and thank them for the freedom I have enjoyed.

[@marka5478]

The periscopically aimed turrets, like the early B-25 and the RAF's Lancasters were not easy to use. If the sighting station was located in the fuselage, adjacent to the turret, it would have been easier to operate, and safer.

[@e.conboy4286]

But remember, this was state of the art in that day. Production line rolling them out at one a day! My aunt was a riveter, no kidding. Hayes International in Birmingham, Al.. women couldn’t wear slacks or pants at the time. Unbelievable, isn’t it

[@MajorCaliber]

Those type of remote-operated "periscope" guns were all over the B-29, but that came *much later* in the war. REMEMBER: America's involvement in WW2 lasted exactly as long as you spent in high-school--only 3 years and 9 months... try to GROK how much industry was re-purposed overnight, how much new technology was invented, tested, and brought to MASS PRODUCTION in UNbelievably short time frames! 😵‍💫😳😳😳😱😱

[@jaredlewis4]

what airshow was this one at ?

[@radicaljellybean2672]

Imagine having to automatic .50 Cals near your EARS 😬👂💥

[@niltonreis6093]

Show !!!

[@babuzzard6470]

At 6ft 6ins I don’t think I’d fit very well, kudos to those brave gunners.

[@salamburhan8617]

هذا الي يخلوا هنا . يعتبر انتحاري .

[@indonesianstreetfood4643]

Keren gaez

[@brianpayne4549]

At over 6 foot tall, I’m comfortable in saying I’d never be a ball turret gunner… lol

[@THOMAS01ify]

Just the noise you had to of been absolutely def .

[@asafgl4281]

What would happen in plane shot down and gunner must get out???

[@e.conboy4286]

Wouldn’t be pretty.

[@user-rh9ph6dx7g]

👍

[@stephenbowden3827]

My dad was a ball turret gunner. I didn’t appreciate what he’d been through until I was far into adulthood. Thanks to all who served fighting fascism. He’d be appalled by trump et al.

[@anthonycastro8364]

Ohhh hell no.. all jus shot out the side window with my 1911 at the planes

[@Thunderdragons3026]

I am to big

[@PSTX5210]

We are a nation of children compared to those guys

[@dave2808]

I'm too big

[@alvaro2338]

Juicebox95 lol ..... me too

[@dave2808]

@@alvaro2338 I may be skinny but being 6'2" has it's disadvantages

[@alvaro2338]

Juicebox95 ........the side position is better for you bud......

[@dave2808]

@@alvaro2338 that's if I can even fit on the plane to begin with. Infantry would've better for me

[@alvaro2338]

Juicebox95 then we are going to carry M240s Bravo in the infantry , lol, see u bud!

[@Mephistopholies]

One of the top five worst places to be in WWll.

[@stephenpowell5912]

Agreed 💔🙏😪

[@SuperLuminalElf]

NOPE

[@chriselms6972]

Those belt guards were not invented back then it was exposed belt fed so not sure why they made that edition. That’s very modern

[@MajorCaliber]

NOT true... modifications come fast and furious during a hot war. Version 1.0 of this Sperry ball turret had the ammo cans INside the already cramped ball!... later on they went to the EXternal ammo cans and slick feed system seen here. Similarly, early B-17s had both waist gunners exactly the same distance from the tail, BUT... this left the 2 waist-gunners bumping ass and generally getting in each other's way, SO... Boeing Engineers (and hand-drawing Draftsmen) quickly came up with the *staggered* arrangement seen on most surviving B-17s... (and added some armor plate to protect them from the solar-plexus down)...

[@vizslaerick8850]

👎commercials

[@glynmatthews6697]

More fortunate if you were in the B-24 Liberatror- it had a retractable ball turret on some variants .