#b-52d

The Loneliness of the B-52 Tail Gunner

Early model B-52′s were the last American bombers to have gunners stationed in the tail; later models moved the gunner to the front with the rest of the crew, with a televised view to the rear for the gunner, and radar. The gunner usually entered the aircraft through a rear lower hatch. It was possible to go between the front crew area and the tail during flight along a narrow catwalk over the bomb bay, but the aircraft had to be depressurized and I think this was rarely done. The manual says that for flights longer than 16 hours, the copilot could go back and relieve the tail gunner. Another interesting note is that during war emergency takeoffs, the gunner should close the flash curtains over the canopy on takeoff to avoid flash blindness from nearby nuclear detonations.

Some features in the image (taken recently in a museum aircraft): center top, the optical gunsight which could be directed to view anywhere in the aft hemisphere; below that the radar scope, radar controls, and handles for moving the aiming point manually. Note the ashtray far left; not much else to do on long flights.

Unlike the rest of the crew, the tail gunner didn’t have an ejection seat (and was the only enlisted crew member, the rest were officers); the canopy could be jettisoned or the entire turret in front of the gunner could be jettisoned to bail out manually. On the other hand, the tail gunner was the only survivor in at least one crash, the entire rest of the airplane having absorbed most of the damage.

I suspect that the ride in turbulence was rough; sitting on the ground the tail gunner station was moving around some in the wind due to the enormous vertical tail just above it.