The ball turret, like this one on a B-17 in England in 1943, was designed small to reduce drag, so its gunner usually was the shortest man in the crew. Gunners on World War II bombers had only a ...

At some point in their schooling, students used to encounter “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner,” a brief, bleak, harrowing poem from 1945 by Randall Jarrell. Its last line is especially ...

The turret in question could be found at the bottom of a B-17 bomber — a plexiglass ball containing two .50-caliber machine guns and a very short gunner. The sphere could pivot to fend off attacking ...

World War II veteran Al Shaw points to a B-17 model that hangs from the ceiling in his Belle Fourche home. The model, which shows a translucent, bubble-like ball turret on the underside, is just ...