Randall Jarrell, 1914-1965.
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell, 1945
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 the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. 5
Randall Jarrell’s note:
A ball turret was a Plexiglas sphere set into the belly of a B-17 or B-24, and inhabited by two .50 caliber machine-guns and one man, a short small man. When this gunner tracked with his machine guns a fighter attacking his bomber from below, he revolved with the turret; hunched upside-down in his little sphere, he looked like the fetus (I hate that word; it dehumanizes the child) in the womb. The fighters which attacked him were armed with cannon firing explosive shells. The hose was a steam hose.
The 1990, star-filled cast of Memphis Belle is about a B-17 bomber with a ball turret gunner. Here’s a little background on the Memphis Belle. Here are a few pics of a ball turret with gunner inside. Prior to the ball turret, gunners used to stand inside the fuselage with the 50 caliber gun pointing out a window. See here and here.
Here is the Poetry Speaks series where poets read their own works. Might be worth having if you’re going to create some YouTube poetry videos.
San Gabriel Tutor 