ww2 jobs?

[waterdog]

if you had to pick one? WW2 BALL TURRET Gunner B-17or U- Boat crew member?

[Bdub25]

My grandad was pilot instructor for B17’s. Sorry to hikack


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[John Paul]

I would say Uboat. 1. not good at heights plus having to concentrate long enough to try and shoot fighter planes coming in from multiple directions sounds not just challenging but down right nerve racking, for 8 plus hours at a time, then the flack... True heroes for sure.

[Walker]

B17's had a very high rate of being shot down. We didn't have u-boats.

[waterdog]

B17's had a very high rate of being shot down. We didn't have u-boats.

the german did. just saying..

[Artos]

It's hard to believe we lost more airmen in the campaign than marines...ridding the Luftwaffe & owning the skies was imperative to victory. Lotsa luck goes into surviving your 20 daylight runs.

[glen]

I’d take anything that involved water. Water is my happy place and would still have the possibility of some type of fishing

[jerp]

Seeing as how I’m a bit claustrophobic, the thought of either makes my heart race. Imagining being in a sub (u-boat) as it sinks and fills with seawater is horrifying. As far as being a ball turret gunner i read a lot about WWII air battles when I was young and at some point came across this poem written in 1945:

Death of the ball turret gunner

“From my mother’s sleep I fell into the state,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life
I woke to black flak and nightmare flyers
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.”



That stuck with me

[gravetyl]

U boat


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[jerp]

I also remember reading about a shot-up B17 trying to make it back to a base in northern England. Their hydraulics were gone - no landing gear and they couldn’t get the ball turret gunner out of the bubble. The pilot had to do a belly landing knowing that gunner was going to be a red smear on the tarmac

[IowaHunter]

That was a cheery poem above. Heck of a job to have - short straw gets the turret!

[schmalzy]

Depends. U-boat if I could have been the captain. Belly gunner if not. Either way you’re clanking brass when you walk.

My grandfathers brother was a u-boat guy. Wish I could have met him.

Cool post.


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[OldRiverRat]

Turret
I like working alone and I’d go mad under water.


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[flywise]

Don’t like either of those options

[ACbob]

I'm only 5'9 and might still be too big to have been a turret gunner.