Requiem For A Rear Gunner...

[Von Richter]

My brief sweet life is over,
My eyes no longer see,
No Christmas trees,
no summer walks
No pretty girls for me,
I've got the chop, I've had it
My nightly Ops are done,
Yet in another hundred years
I'll still be twenty one.

By R.W. Gilbert

[lcm1]

Originally Posted by Von Richter

My brief sweet life is over,
My eyes no longer see,
No Christmas trees,
no summer walks
No pretty girls for me,
I've got the chop, I've had it
My nightly Ops are done,
Yet in another hundred years
I'll still be twenty one.

By R.W. Gilbert

They told me I was too tall to be an airgunner and at 84 I am damned glad!!

[Von Richter]

Originally Posted by lcm1

They told me I was too tall to be an airgunner and at 84 I am damned glad!!

If you want to experience the loneliest place in the world, don't try Siberia or Antarctica. Just fly in a Lancaster in the 'Tail-end Charlie' [Rear Gunner] position.

You climb into a not very comfortable seat, hand wind the whole 'pod' (turret) until you are cut off from your colleagues and face the world backwards.

You are on your own, with no control over where you go.

Suddenly, you see another aircraft coming towards you. You wait, check it is not friendly and judge the point at which you fire, assuming you have not already been blown to bits and that you are accurate, as there will be no second chance. Your intercom may work, but only to scream out that you are about to leave this world and wish you had gone down the mines instead.

The only One you can communicate with is Almighty God and plead with Him that you hope you have not left it too late to be reconciled to Him, in spite of your previous life. If He says 'O.K.', then you can die in peace and cease being lonely. Otherwise you think: 'The average number of sorties by rear gunners is three; I've done two, so I can't have long to go.'

Do we ever really think of the incredible bravery of such lonely men? They rarely were decorated -- that usually fell to the pilots. But how many crew owe their lives to the good judgment and accurate fire of Charlie in his so-lonely place, really back stage?

Of course, if you do survive again, you sweat -- even when it is freezing in the turret, which it usually is, with no air conditioning there, just a constant cold or freezing draught -- and thank God if you are sensible, or your lucky stars if not, and wait for the next "Action Stations" with fear all over your face and indeed in your whole lonely body.

Alan Orme

[wokelly]

And was the average life of the tail gunner only 3 missions?

[jeffdoorgunnr]

I have long said that grunts have more respect from me than anyone else.

I would like to amend that to include bomber gunners.......

[wellsfargo]

The Rear Turret
The rear gunner is dead long live the rear gunner.
Ball Turret
Who would want to be a ball gunner, jammed into a ball turret with your knees by your ear.

[Von Richter]

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
by Randall Jarrell

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from the dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

[wellsfargo]

Originally Posted by von richter

the death of the ball turret gunner
by randall jarrell

from my mother's sleep i fell into the state,
and i hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from the dream of life,
i woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When i died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

lol

[lcm1]

Originally Posted by Von Richter

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
by Randall Jarrell

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from the dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

Did I ever say that when I was an innocent (gormless) 18 year old i volunteered for the RAF aircrew as a gunner, they turned me down because I was too tall. GAWD, I'm glad they put me in the Marines!!!!

[Dogsbody67]

From the journal of John Byrne, Lancaster Wireless Operator, January 1945:

'Dedicated to those who have proudly flown their last flight.

They will no longer see the patchesof cloud that dappled the countryside with shadow. Or scan the lie of the country, the compass bearings of the railways, the shape of the largest fields. They will no longer feel the damp coldness of a cloud..........No longer as they glide back to their aerodrome will the wind cry softly in their ears. Nor will they sing aloud, their words swept away by the slipstream and lost.'

Byrne was killed when his Lancaster collided with another over Dresden on the night of 13/14 February 1945.

[dongar1]

I'd hate to be a gunner facing backwards in a SBD..... in the Pacific..