Originally Posted by
dduxbury310
No. 75 (NZ) Squadron was supplied with four RAF (specially-trained) air gunners on 26th September 1944, to man the make-shift belly gun, so these gunners only flew in the (eventually) six to eight aircraft on the squadron actually equipped with them. Other such gunners were posted in over following months, and quite a bit of coming and going of these man seems to be taking place. I believe these special gunners were not members of a regular crew, and so far as I know did not have a particular regular aircraft. One of them apparently became morbidly fixated on the possibility of becoming a target for a German night fighter crew with "slanted" cannon armament installed in their aircraft, and on one operation over Europe he abandoned his gun position and flatly refused to man it for the rest of the flight. Needless to say, this poor chap had no future in the RAF, and he promptly vanished from the station. I was told about this incident by the rear gunner on this aircraft (he died about 18 months ago, I attended his funeral), but this was one of his stranger stories. I do not know if the other gunners remained with squadron till end of war, as nothing much was mentioned about them in the Squadron ORB. However I do have a list of some of these men, including service numbers.
David D
Bomber Command never officially recognised the threat from 'Schrage Musik', even if the odd squadron took steps to man a downward firing gun.
Because an attack of this sorts was usually fatal, the loss was attributed to flak.
The ammunition used was less inclined to glow, so all other crews saw was a sudden fire as the fuel tanks were hit.
Even BC's own operational research scientists did become aware of the fact until after the war.