I am reading this book
https://www.amazon.com/Bloody-April-.../dp/0304367192
Here is a nice description of the observer's/gunner's job
I am reading this book
https://www.amazon.com/Bloody-April-.../dp/0304367192
Here is a nice description of the observer's/gunner's job
Flying the FE2 looks like something out of a Harold Lloyd movie... "Safety LAST."
Those FE gunners were very brave men the way they had to move around to shoot.
I remember reading of one chap who used to climb on the cockpit sides to operate the rear firing gun!
Indeed. No force on earth or in heaven would get me into that front seat...
I agree with you about the incredible courage of the observers climbing up to fire the rear gun. After a while, the observers were given a long leather strap, with which to secure themselves to their cockpit floor. I remember reading somewhere about an observer, who fell overboard and was dangling by his strap unable to climb back in. His pilot somehow jammed his controls, climbed out of his cockpit, helped the observer back on board and then returned to his own cockpit.
on the shoulders of giants. im always amazed by the intestinal fortitude displayed by early aviators.
Obviously designed by someone who was never going to have to fly in it.
Same as an open plan offices
You couldn't pay me to be a gunner in an FE2. Those guys were nuts.
No, but you'd do it for God and Country, right?
Karl
It is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he thinks he knows. -- Epictetus
Bookmarks