Halifax Bomber Rear Turret

Heroes Remember

Halifax Bomber Rear Turret

Transcript

I flew in the Halifaxes, they actually dropped more bombs than the Lancaster. The Lancaster was later being used and I think most people think the Lancaster was a better plane. We had to learn both the gun turrets of the Halifax and the Lancaster. I was much happier with the gun turret of the Halifax than the Lancaster. The control was like a fighter pilot’s control. You move the control to the right, the turret, the gun’s turret will turn to the right, hold it back the guns went up and the firing button was right on that same control. We were really sitting pretty well in the open. Many gunners cut the perspex out of the turret because it was hard to clean it perfectly. The least speck might make you think there was a fighter out there. So we cut that out, so you’re looking right at the sky. The main thing was to keep your eyes open all the time and search the sky in every direction continuously searching the sky, and of course if you were attacked, you were suppose to know the type of plane and the distance by our sight was a ring sight and if you knew the plane you knew how far away it was. Our guns were only good for about 300 yards whereas the fighter pilots had bigger guns and they were good at 500 yards. They figured if they could get the tail gunner, they could get the plane. But some flew underneath where you couldn’t see them. If they could get underneath, they couldn’t see ya, and come up and shoot, shoot from the belly of the plane. They would blow up the bombs, if you still had bombs on, so that would be the end of the whole crew. And, of course, gunners would exchange positions if necessary. The tail was more important than the mid upper gunner if one happened to be hurt, but I never did get out of the turret on 36 missions from the time I got in until the time we landed and parked. Some gunners thought when they crossed the channel at our time in the war that it was safe enough to get out of the turret and in the plane, have a smoke or go to the bathroom. But the 14th of March, just before I finished my tour, the 17th I think, German fighters followed us back in right to our base, bases I should say and shot down twenty bombers right over our territory. It really bothered me that gunners would get out of their plane when they crossed the channel back and they’d get shot down so innocently. I thought that was a terrible thing. Another hour or so, and the plane could have saved the crew of seven. It would have saved a lot of sadness back in Canada.

Description

Mr. Kerry compares the rear turrets of the Halifax and Lancaster bombers and discusses the sense of responsibility he felt for the security of the crew.

Ivan Kerry

Ivan Kerry was born on November 3, 1925, in Port Perry, Ontario. He was one of six children. His father farmed, but the depression made life difficult for his family. Mr. Kerry recalls the generosity of Eastern Canada in sending relief shipments. He then left school at the age of fifteen to work in an egg processing plant. His enlistment followed the path of two uncles who had served in the First World War and a brother who was in the Navy. He enlisted in the Air Force as, and joined the Bomber Command as a tail gunner. Mr. Ketty was fortunate to survive one of the most dangerous and vulnerable combat roles of the war.

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