He finally extinguished the fire by hand after throwing exploding ammunition overboard, saving the aircraft. For more than an hour, Smith alternated between tending to a wounded crewman, battling flames, and firing the waist guns against enemy fighters. In May 1943, enemy flak and fighters set ball turret gunner SSgt Maynard Smith’s B-17 afire over Brest, France. SSgt Maynard “Snuffy” Smith-Medal of Honor The B-17 (left) had hand-operated tail guns with a limited field of fire while the B-24 (right) had a powered tail turret that covered a wide area. Later versions of the B-17 (top photo) and B-24 (left) had more effective, powered, twin-gun nose turrets like those pictured here. Some other crewmembers also operated defensive guns as a secondary duty.Įarly heavy bombers only had hand-operated flexible guns in the nose, leaving them vulnerable to frontal attack from enemy fighters. ![]() Typically, gunners made up half of a bomber crew, manning a top turret, ball turret, two waist guns, and a tail turret. US Army Air Forces gunners defended B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator bombers against fighter attacks with machine guns aimed by hand (“flexible guns”) and electrically-powered gun turrets.
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