Turret Trainers

[Jack Cook]

[Malo83]

B25 Turret trainers ???

[Taigh Ramey]

Awesome Jack thanks for posting them.

Malo83 you are correct they are both Bendix upper turrets that were used in the B-25.

The first shot is an early one that has the periscopic sight and what looks like a locally fabricated dome. The turret appears to be mounted on a trailer and the one gentleman has his foot on the gas powered generator. These trainers were often used for live fire on the gunnery range with their normal 50 cal guns but were also set up with 30 cals and shotguns purportedly because they were much more economical than the 50's were.

The second one is part of an elaborate gunnery trainer that used complex motion picture projectors as seen above the turret in the background. The images of fighters attacking from all different angles were usually projected onto a concave screen. The turret is fitted with a projector device of its own that would project light onto the screen when the gunner fired. The system could also record hits and the instructor would give instruction through the intercom.

This one seems to be crudely put together in the field. The turret and projector stand both look to be field made and the matting on the wall suggests somewhere in the field or theatre.

I have photos and some limited information in manuals about this type of gunnery training system. Some of the images show a Sperry ball and top turret and waist guns all mounted in a purpose built building using similar projectors. They also had elaborate visual simulators for bombardier and navigation training.

Thanks again Jack!

Taigh

[Chris Brame]

The second one is part of an elaborate gunnery trainer that used complex motion picture projectors as seen above the turret in the background. The images of fighters attacking from all different angles were usually projected onto a concave screen.

This system was the direct ancestor of the '50s and '60s Cinerama process for movies like This is Cinerama and How the West was Won.

[Obergrafeter]

Didn't they use BB Guns on some of those set ups?

[wendovertom]

cool - great photos - I'll have to dig out the photos of the Ball turret trainer that ws used in Wendover - pretty cool setup!

Tom P.

[jbell]

Here's a pic I got out of this months "Military Vehicle Magazine". Turret trainer on a 1 1/2 ton Chevy chassis. Designated E-5 turret trainer. Caption reads Bendix top turret of the type used on B-17's. Now wouldn"t that be great to have for the next MV show!..............John

[262crew]

Me in the MOF'S turret at age 12.

[Taigh Ramey]

The E-5 turret truck is what we are building here at our museum. We found a derelict truck in a farmer’s field that was an actual E-5 that, according to the markings, appears to have been stationed at Las Vegas Gunnery School.

Here is a web page about the truck:

http://www.twinbeech.com/turret_truck.htm

She is pretty rough but I have recently located two other E-5's so we hooe to build up at least two trucks.

Here is a shot of our M-6 Bomb Service Truck towing the Ball turret. The photo was taken by Ryan Davis, WIX member extraordinaire:




Should any of you come across any photos of turret trucks please let me know about them. We are having to build up the turret support structure and photos help to make it more accurate.

Thanks,
Taigh

[Tulio]

Bought recently at Wal-Mart [or was it at SAM's?] a 4 DVD set titled "War Movies / WWII Collection."

One of the movies, "Aerial Gunner" (1943) was filmed at the Harlingen Aerial Gunnery Station "HAGS" and has good shots of turrets mounted on trucks, as well as flying scenes of aerial gunnery using AT-6Ds.

The company marketing the DVDs is TGG Direct LLC.

Saludos,


Tulio

[Mike Berry]

Here are two photos of a British type FN16 (Nash & Thompson Ltd.) turret modified for use as a trainer with cupola removed.