Aircraft stirs memories for a former tailgunner WWII

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130919/NEWS2001/130918771/1120#aircraft-stirs-memories-for-a-former-tailgunner

By Eugene Curtin
Leader Staff Writer

It must have brought no comfort at all to the Axis powers when Gail Farrell took his place in the tailgunner’s seat of a B-17 Flying Fortress.

It was the waning months of World War II and the cities of Nazi Germany lay battered by armadas of B-17s, formidable heavy bombers dubbed the Flying Fortress. Germany’s armed forces on land, air and sea were, as athletes say, sucking wind when onto the field of battle stepped a new wave of American 19-year-olds.

Farrell, who had trained as a tailgunner for about 18 months in various parts of the United States, had finally been assigned to the European theater, specifically to the 379th Bomb Group, which was stationed in Kimbolton, England from May 1943 to June 1945.

He will turn 89 in October and lives today on Lincoln Road in Bellevue.

FULL story and photo at link.

[oneshooter]

1. Better a tail gunner than a ball gunner

At least he had a chance to get out if and when needed.

[Scurrilous]

2. Kick