I just had a few test flights as a gunner and was once again astonished how many memorable moments there were in all the chaos.
In the first flight, my gun did not work, but everything was so interesting I just watched it as a "film". It was eagle day and the tommies came in huge numbers. There were maybe 5 behind us, but they all shot toward our left. I looked at the Dornier there and was astonished to see no smoke or damage. I thought, "Either the british pilots were the worst marksmen I ever saw or I just witnessed a miracle!" Not even a second later , 3 or 4 sticks fell down. It took me a split second to understand the crew had just bailed out. Probably the fighters had destroyed something like control cables or so, that you can not see from another plane.
Another instance, there were aircraft manouvering through our formation like only fighters can. Any fighter near my bomber is a just target, so I aimed, but it was still a bit too far and I had to save ammunition. Then I saw it had two engines - it was a Me110 .
Most of the time they targeted neighbour bombers, maybe they wanted to get the leaders. Once they crippled one and it drifted back. I was tempted to tell my pilot to reduce power, but of course the whole armada can not slow down due to one plane. The brits swarmed behind him like a bee swarm. I tried to help him a bit by shooting, but he was quickly some way behind us, the fighters were behind him, so after a few seconds there was no more that I could do .
Another time I saw a wing and thought "Oh, one of the other bomber gunners must have gotten a good hit". The wing then twirled on in the airstream and I saw the Balkenkreuz. Probably it was even from a bomber, the Me109 only seldomly fly between the bombers.
In my last flight, i was again taking careful aim at a fighter with my unwieldy weapon (I used joystick). The fighter was still a bit outside the range at which I start shooting - the main thing for a gunner is to save ammo - but it was approaching rapidly and I wanted the recticle to be on the target as soon as he came into my range. He was flying towards our neighbouring bomber. Then I saw one or two tracers racing by and maybe 1/10 of a second later I was dead. Some other fighter had hit me.
For readers of the BDG forum: These flights were before my "terror" or "holy cow" flight.
came in huge numbers. There were maybe 5 behind us, but they all shot toward our left. I looked at the Dornier there and was astonished to see no smoke or damage. I thought, "Either the british pilots were the worst marksmen I ever saw or I just witnessed a miracle!" Not even a second later , 3 or 4 sticks fell down. It took me a split second to understand the crew had just bailed out. Probably the fighters had destroyed something like control cables or so, that you can not see from another plane.
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