NEED HELP!!! Researching Ball Turret Vets, Stories, Pictures

[Former Member]

For awhile now I've been researching the names of the thousands of vets that served as ball turret gunners on B-17's & B-24's in WWII. This has been quite an undertaking and I've been fortunate to have built quite a large database of vets names with units and their fate (KIA, POW, MIA, Completed Required Missions, Etc). My goal is to eventually print a book or start a website dedicated to these brave souls who "flew the ball" in one of the most dangerous jobs in WWII.

One of the biggest resources I've found is the Army Air Forces website and forum. The site contains threads for each major bomb group and links to other websites which typically have crew lists and MACR crash reports.

I was curious if anybody out there knows of any other good sources for crew listings, etc? I'm also searching for any unique stories relating to ball turret gunners, bios, and of course any cool pictures as well (credit would be given to source).

Thanks in advance for your help!!!

John

[6trn4brn]

Rollie Douglas is one of the volunteers at Grissom Air Museum in Peru, Indiana. He was a ball turret gunner on B-17s with the Bloody 100th. Shot down over Hamburg while on the bomb run and was a POW for the remainder of the war. Wonderful gentleman to talk to and never seems to run out of stories

[Former Member]

Thanks!!

[Dan K]

Hi again John,

http://members.tripod.com/richardwhite1/id66.htm

The link concerns research on navigator James Eppenberger of the 569th BS, crew #28. My mom's cousin, Billy Pflug, was co-pilot and Eppenberger's best buddy. You can obviously pick out ball turret gunner Fred "Shorty" Herring from the photo.

Long story short, Crew 28 was lost on 4/24/44 over Friedrichshafen. Shorty Herring had been injured 4 days previously, missed the raid, and became the only member of Crew 28 to survive the war. The site even includes a brief interview of Herring at the end.

Hope this helps your project.

[oscardeuce]

Vern Riffe, was a ball gunner and went on to be Speaker of the House of Representatives for the State of Ohio

[Former Member]

Thanks guys!

On a side note...I have to admit that doing this research can get quite depressing when you start seeing all of the KIA's listed. What's really sad is when you see the entire crew was KIA or you start reading the eye witness accounts describing in detail how these guys died in their turrets, couldn't bail out in time, or made it out only to killed by german soldiers or civilians on the ground.

John

[Steve Nelson]

One of the volunteers at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, Joe Yonkers, was a B-17 ball turret gunner with the 15th AF based in Foggia. He said when they got rid of the ball turrets late in the war they made him a "toggleer" who dropped the bombs.

SN

[Former Member]

One of the volunteers at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, Joe Yonkers, was a B-17 ball turret gunner with the 15th AF based in Foggia. He said when they got rid of the ball turrets late in the war they made him a "toggleer" who dropped the bombs.

SN

Thanks Steve. I noticed this happened quite a bit late in the war. They either removed the ball turret entirely to save weight and to reduce drag or they replaced it with the "Mickey" radar when using B-17's as pathfinders.

From the looks of it many of these homeless ball turret gunners were then placed into a "gunners pool" and used as fill-ins for other crews. As you mentioned, many were used as toggleers as well.

John

[Former Member]

Rollie Douglas is one of the volunteers at Grissom Air Museum in Peru, Indiana. He was a ball turret gunner on B-17s with the Bloody 100th. Shot down over Hamburg while on the bomb run and was a POW for the remainder of the war. Wonderful gentleman to talk to and never seems to run out of stories

I found his information on the 100th B.G. website:

S/SGT Roland L. Douglas
POW on 12/31/44
Cause: Collided with 42-31066
Target: Berlin
Aircraft: 42-38124
Notes: From Gerald Brown crew, he replced Gordon Sinclair on this mission.

What's interesting is that Rollie Douglas is listed as a top turret gunner. It appears he filled in as ball turret gunner for Gordon Sinclair on this one mission. During my research I've noticed quite a bit of crew station and gunner "swapping" that went on. I've seen some crews showing 2 and even 3 ball turret gunners that served at one point or another during a crew's tour.

Thanks for the info!

John

[Jesse C.]

My old Room Mate's Grandfather was a Ball Turret gunner on a B-17 in the ETO. I will talk to him in a few days and try to get as much info as possible. I do know that his plane was named "The Reluctant Dragon" I know there where a few with the same name but I will try to get specifics and his last name is Bradt.

More soon!

[6trn4brn]

Hi John,
Just to try and clarify a bit on the Rollie Douglas story. He has told me that the crew he trained with was Browns Clowns and that he did go all the way through training, then on to Thorpe Abbots and the first couple of missions as the ball turret gunner. Browns Clowns was transitioned to a pathfinder early on and he lost his position with his crew and was placed in the pool of gunners that you mentioned earlier. On his 26th mission to Hamburg, he was posted as a tail-gunner. They were on the bomb run when the collision occured with debris from the aircraft directly above them which had taken a direct hit from flak. Sgt Douglas, his aircraft navigator and one of his waist gunners were the only three survivors from both planes. This did occur on 12/31/44 over Hamburg and not on a mission to Berlin. This was the same mission that the two B-17s became entangled in a piggyback style that the Germans thought was some sort of new weapon we were experimenting with.

This is also all according to what Rollie has told me. If you are in the area some time, be sure and stop to say Hi as Rollie loves to talk about his times.

[Former Member]

Thanks for the heads-up on the info!!

John