Oh. My.
Aggie Farmer said:
My Dad was a nose gunner on a B24 in WWII. His plane was shot down over Poland, they parachuted and were captured. Spent time in Stalag Luft IV prison camp. I don't believe he would want to crawl in there and bring back those memories. Our local Bellville VFW Post is having a program in the morning to honor all the remaining WWII vets. He just turned 94 and will join 4 to 5 others there tomorrow. God bless the Greatest Generation!
Aggie Farmer said:
My Dad was a nose gunner on a B24 in WWII. His plane was shot down over Poland, they parachuted and were captured. Spent time in Stalag Luft IV prison camp. I don't believe he would want to crawl in there and bring back those memories. Our local Bellville VFW Post is having a program in the morning to honor all the remaining WWII vets. He just turned 94 and will join 4 to 5 others there tomorrow. God bless the Greatest Generation!
Start a thread giving the story or send a PM to FS guideSJ1987 said:
Hey I know this is wayyy off topic but three years ago you had a hit and run situation. The one where you had the paper tags and some guy found out the information you needed. Did he by chance ever tell you how he did that? I'm in the exact situation and was looking for some help. Thanks!
I wasn't sure about this. On Googling, it appears he sat on basically a bicycle seat, and rested some weight on his knees. I'm not sure about the parachute, but, he would have had to exit the tail gunner seat to bail out, and move forward to a hatch. Maybe he stored a parachute and grabbed it on the way.JonSnow said:
I heard the tail gunner on the B17 had to ride and fire sitting on his knees the whole way and didn't have enough room to even wear a parachute.
Haven't flown, have toured on the ground. But you echo my thoughts. Growing up watching war movies, I guess I instinctively thought that the structure of the plane afforded some protection. While they did have armor plating in their seats and at the gun positions, and wore flak jackets, they were essentially unprotected.Kenneth_2003 said:
Flew in a B17 this summer. My first thought as i settled into the radio room was how thin the skin of that plane was.