The Waist Gunner

Bill heard the pilot, Lieutenant C. J. Russell, come over the headsets. “Keep those guns sharp! We’re ten minutes from the drop point!” The sky had begun to fill with distant sights of enemy fighters. Bill looked out over the sea of bombers and prayed for the safety of them all, including his. Bill was the left waist gunner. He glanced at Sam, who was the right. Sam said, “Look sharp, kid. This is where the fun starts.” The outer line of bombers was firing from the ball turrets and the left waist positions. The enemy fighters scattered to evade the fire and began to draw in behind the bomber group. “Lead the target. Lead the target. Lead the target,” Bill muttered to himself. The rear gunner turret reported ten bandits one hundred yards above and to the tail. Sam squeezed off a five-second round of fire up and to the right. “Two bandits hit and smoking!” There was a sound like rain falling on a tin roof. The top of the ship had been hit with a hail of bullets. No one seemed to be alarmed over this fact, so Bill returned his attention to the gun. Two of the enemy aircraft had turned their attention to the left side of the ship, and they were already firing at the ship that was in front of and to the right of Bill’s position. Bill squeezed off a few rounds while the words “lead the target” echoed in his mind. The lead bandit was hit and had started to burn. The bandit that was above and behind the damaged bandit rolled to the left to avoid being hit by metal that had already begun to peel off Bill’s target. Bill noticed that the plane he had hit was not changing position. He looked at the canopy and saw a large spray of blood covering the inside of the bubble. Bill stepped back from the gun. “I killed someone.” Sam turned to look at Bill. Realizing that the safety of the ship required concentration, he put his hand on Bill’s shoulder. “First person you ever killed?” Bill nodded. “Think about it … a lot. You’ll get used to it.” Sam turned back to his own gun and was immediately struck in the chest and the left shoulder with bullets. He fell to the floor, unable to make any sounds. “Gunner down!” screamed Bill. The radio officer immediately left his post and took over Sam’s position. Bill realized then and there that it was impossible to care for the injured when hands were short in the defense of the ship. Bill glanced back down at Sam, who was gurgling and struggling to breathe. The gurgling stopped, and Sam went limp. The vacant look in his eyes was a haunting realization that friends were temporary. The bandits were thinning slightly, but Bill had a renewed resolve. One of his newest friends, a member of his own crew, had been killed by an enemy that was hell-bent on killing them all. Bill was angry. He grabbed his gun and squeezed the trigger as tightly as he could. Two more bandits were on fire, and one more was smoking, but it wasn’t enough to cover the anguish and hatred he felt in his gut. The plane shook violently as a shell ripped off the bomb bay doors, the ball turret, and Sergeant Bader. A fire raged in the bomb bay. Two of the engines were immediately knocked out, and they had to fall out of formation. The plane was being attacked by several FW-190s, and they were able to fire at will. Lieutenant Russell put the plane into a dive to extinguish the flames. Suddenly, the number three engine started running away, and the lieutenant had no choice but to give the order to abandon ship. Bill had been knocked to the floor and was struggling to get back up. He had shrapnel in his left shoulder that rendered his left arm almost useless. Blood dripped from his face onto his freezer suit. He was unsure of how much injury he had sustained or what had struck him. Bill worked to get the suit off his body so that his parachute would work. Struggling and screaming in pain, he worked his way to the cockpit. There was an M1911 pistol sliding back and forth across the floor and Bill grabbed it and put it in the side pouch on his parachute pack. Finding the hatch to the nose section, he slithered into the hole of the nose gunner’s compartment and fell through it. Unsure of his altitude, he pulled the cord. The chute opened, and the straps between his legs absorbed the impact of the sudden deceleration. Bill let out a bloodcurdling scream and then passed out from the agony.