Meting with a Lancaster rear gunner

Greetings all,

I was lucky enough to meet an ex-RAF rear gunner last week. Couldn't
chat for long, but he shared a few memories with me, so I thought I'd
pass them on.

I suppose he was either lucky or skilled. He was a rear gunner between
1940 and 1946, first Wellingtons, then Lancs, and although he never
claimed for a kill he must have scared off a few fighters simply to have
survived. Some of what he had to say is undoubtedly well known, but a
couple of bits were new to me.

First the electrically heated suit. Rarely worked properly, and when it
did it was known to provide the occasional electrical shock. So, he
spent many operations feeling quite cold. Also, the gauntlets were so
cumbersome he preferred to take them off if he wanted to do anything
fiddly, and that was when his skin would stick to any metal fittings it
touched. (A few hours at 20,000 feet must qualify for a cold soak.)

When you look at a photo of a Lanc rear turret you can see a couple of
chutes, one either side, to allow the spent cases to exit the turret.
His experience was that a lot of them ended up on the floor of the
turret, and if he had to stand up to do anything his feet would fly out
from under him.

At the end of the operation the gunners had to remove their guns from
the turrets and take them back to the armoury and clean them. This they
did with loving care as they wanted the guns to work properly the next
night...

Finally, I had wondered whether the sounds in the rear turret of a Lanc
would include the hammering of the gun breeches (re. recording of WVT's
flight on a bomber raid), but he put that one to rest - the business end
of the Brownings drowned out anything else.

What did your pair of Brownings on the front turret sound like, Gord?

Cheers,

Dave

--
Dave Eadsforth