Meting with a Lancaster rear gunner

In article , Gord Beaman
?@?.? writes
Dave Eadsforth wrote:


Finally, I had wondered whether the sounds in the rear turret of a Lanc
would include the hammering of the gun breeches (re. recording of WVT's
flight on a bomber raid), but he put that one to rest - the business end
of the Brownings drowned out anything else.

What did your pair of Brownings on the front turret sound like, Gord?

Cheers,

Dave

Surprisingly quiet Dave, mind you the ambient noise level was
pretty high anyway.

I guess it was - since you would have had a pair of Merlins in each ear,
something the rear gunner was spared.

I was pretty nervous the first time that I
fired them being very familiar with a .303 rifle. My dad owned a
.303 Ross that I had put a slew of ammo through while growing up.

Betcha kept that straight-pull bolt clean ;-)

Then a helluva lot more after I started flying and stealing
hundreds of belted .303 rounds (oops - don't tell please).

Your secret is safe with me...

What was very noticeable was the smell of cordite, very strong,
as one would expect from the front turret. We always had 1000
rounds to fire on each 'bombing and gunnery' ops.

One thing I forgot to mention in my original note was that the rear
gunner knew the flak was getting close when he could smell the fumes
from the exploding shells - despite wearing his oxygen mask. I wondered
how that could happen, but concluded that the 'G' masks (1943) onwards
were the first RAF masks to have exhalation vents, and some external
fumes could well have crept in that way.

Was lots of fun firing tracer from Dad's rifle at a big open
hillside on his farm.
--
I'll bet - but was the trace immediate rather than delayed? If so, lots
of boiling water down the barrel afterwards!

-Gord.

Cheers,

Dave

--
Dave Eadsforth