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 ...

Suspended beneath the belly of the B-17 bomber, the ball turret was a claustrophobic sphere of glass, guns, and guts. Discover what it was like to serve in one of the most perilous roles in the U.S.

In February 1944, during the notorious Big Week campaign, a ball turret gunner was forced to take the controls of a heavily ...

The remains of Staff Sergeant Hubert Yeary, shot down during World War II, were laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery ...

Inspired by the Eggers, Burke volunteered to become a ball turret gunner, and flew his first mission on September 16, 1943. He was later wounded in action when a German shell came into his turret ...

Clare Musgrove Clare Musgrove was assigned to the United States 15th Air Force based in Bari, Italy, as a ball turret gunner for B-24 Liberators. In June 1944, his B-24 was on a mission to bomb ...

Yeary, a native of Richmond, Va., was a ball turret gunner assigned to the 732nd Bombardment Squadron, 453rd Bombardment Group, 2nd Combat Bomb Wing, 2nd Air Division, 8th Air Force in the ...