Turrets and Ammunition
DOGLE
Pilots were required to have some knowledge of every aircrew position so, at OTU, when flying as a passengers I took advantage of flying in a rear turret on two occasions in Whitleys, and I had a postwar flight in a Wellington. Whitleys and Wellingtons used Frazer Nash turrets, operated by two handle-bar controls which rotated the turret and elevated or depressed the guns. A firing trigger was on each hand control.
Halifaxes used Boulton Paul turrets, operated by a single stick control in a diamond shaped cut out panel, with a gun button on top, and I tried this type on a ground gunnery trainer. I found both types fairly easy to manipulate. At Abingdon we had an FN turret fitted with a 12 bore shot gun for clay pigeon shooting. After about 100 rounds the barrel had to be re-welded to the turret, because there was no recoil mechanism fitted to the gun.
.303 ammunition was quite inadequate in air defence. The maximum range was about 400 yards, with an alarming ‘drop’ over that distance. The use of .303 for so long was criminal, as the authorities were well aware of its shortcomings.
My first sight of .5 ammunition was when an American B17 landed at St Eval in December 1942. I was amazed at the size of each round, compared with .303, and the huge quantity of ammunition beside each side gun.
In a book written by Arthur A Durand, “Stalag Luft 111, the secret story,” (ISBN 1-85260-248-1), there is an interesting account of American gunners.
The Commanding Officer of a Gunnery School in the USA joined an investigation team to discover why their graduates were not proving well in battle. The Colonel came to the UK and flew with an experienced B17 crew for a bombing operation on the Ruhr. When the German fighters attacked, the Colonel “cursed aloud when the gunners opened up while the fighters were a good two thousand yards away.” He stared in disbelief as the gunners sprayed their bullets across the sky. The urge to “hose down the enemy” was too strong. The trigger happy gunners deluged the FW190s and, in the process, shot up one another.
Unfortunately the Colonel could not report his findings, as they were shot down!
I remember American crews in POW camp saying they were shot down by their “buddies” in the formation. It was, of course, impossible to fit interruptor or baffle plates on free guns. Looking up from a Prisoner of War camp, as the American formations flew over us, it seemed a suicidal way to go to war, - but they got through.
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