Word: gunners
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...Forces his diminutive stature made him a natural for gunner in the cramped ball turret suspended from the belly of a 6-17 Flying Fortress. His nickname was "Snuffy...
...during a raid on the Nazi U-boat pens at St.-Nazaire, his bomber. Fortress 649, was badly hit and burst into flame. The fire sweeping the fuselage drove the radio operator and both waist gunners to "bail out. Emerging from his turret, Snuffy cast aside his own parachute, tackled the fire with extinguishers and water bottles. When he had used them up, he beat out the last flames with his hands. Meantime, he had contrived to man both waist guns in turn, helped to beat off harrying Focke-Wulfs and given first aid to the wounded tail gunner...
...Marauder) called Hell's Belle was on the run to its target when a burst of flak struck the plane. The bombardier was hit. A staff sergeant, serving both as radio operator and waist gunner, had his right leg nearly severed. The pilot shouted to the bombardier to forget the bombs, but he leaned over, dripping blood on his bombsight. and let them go. An Me-109 approached. The wounded sergeant dragged himself to his gun, shot down the Messerschmitt, then picked up a camera and photographed the crash. Two other gunners gave him a shot of morphine...
...roundabout routes, they flew to Eglin Field, Fla. Lieut, (now Captain) Ted Lawson picked up four men on the way. There was matter-of-fact Dean Davenport, co-pilot ("I liked the way he flew"), Charles McClure, navigator, Bob Clever, bombardier, and David Thatcher, gunner-engineer. "Without realizing it, I had picked my crew. . . ." The crews, swelled to 140 men, crowded the Operations Office to hear Major James Doolittle: "If you men have any idea that this isn't the most dangerous thing you've ever been on, don't even start this training period...
...good time to apologize to all my teachers for not studying harder. . . . In the Air Corps you have to study. . . . The other Haaren graduates will tell you they'd rather be bombardiers or pilots. . . . A gunner has the satisfaction of taking a crack at someone he doesn't like...