"The Rear Gunner"

I've seen that video a few times and always enjoy watching it. And yes the Army Air Force used a lot of shotguns to train arial gunners during the war. That is why you still find all manners of shotguns with government markings on them. I would love to have one that was used during WWII for training just for the history of it.

12Bravo20 said:

I've seen that video a few times and always enjoy watching it. And yes the Army Air Force used a lot of shotguns to train arial gunners during the war. That is why you still find all manners of shotguns with government markings on them. I would love to have one that was used during WWII for training just for the history of it.

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A friend of mine has a Rem 11 with a 26" barrel with cutts compensator and mil ordnance markings.

It'd be good if we could still get the full force of Hollywood's greatest to create pro-military and pro-America propaganda.

I just watched that video the other day!
I believe Robert Stack was an instructor at the Naval Gunnery School. He had been a National-Level Skeet shooter in the 30's.

A cousin was a gunnery instructor because he had a hot hand with a shotgun. Bounce along in a half track. A bird gets fired & you gotta hit it bouncing along. Or that’s the story in the family

Excellent video. Thanks for sharing it with us. Back in the 1970's I knew a guy who had been a B-17 ball turret gunner and had a few good tales. Had an uncle that was a B-17 ground crewman but don't recall many contacts with B-24 guys.

Back in the late 70s when I was working at Todd shipyard in San Pedro I'd often stop over at the Long Beach Pike on the way home.
One of the arcades had what appeared to be an original gunnery training machine that used gun camera movies as your targets.
I never could beat it.
I wonder what happened to that machine when they shut down the Pike... .

The range and target speed are a little less for Trap......

Some years back I would spend a few months visiting my two oldest brothers in AZ. They lived near Kingman, AZ.
There was a WWII air base there that did training. In walks through the desert one could find .50 MG brass that had been expelled by aircraft during training. I bought a 5 gal pail of it at the local swap meet.
A small new pawn had just opened in the community where they lived and I spotted a short barrel Model 11 with a crack in the stock. I handled it but didn't look all that closely as I was out of state. The next day it sat by my bed as a present from my brothers. On closer look it was a military marked riot gun. I found a place that was selling original military stocks for it after I brought it home. They had paid less than $100 for it. Not very long after the pawn shop buy I drove my oldest to Prescott for a VA appointment. He wanted to stop at a pawn he had frequented while living there a few years prior. In the gun rack was a Remington Model ll in nice condition. It was priced at $150 and on consignment. I looked at it and it had an adjustable choke and can you believe it was fully military marked. The shop owner walked up and offered it to me for $125. Being from out of state I could not buy it, but there would have been a way or two. Like a dumb a-- , I passed on it. Not one of my brighter moments. I attributed the finds to the air base. Gins for aerial training and for guard duty. After getting back home and replacing the butt stock on the riot gun I sold it for $400.

My dad was a gunner on a B17. They started the men on Skeet, I’m pretty sure in Kingman, AZ. And I’m sure he was shown that video.

It’s interesting that they didn’t have to lead the target but just compensate for the speed of the bomber. In WWI the gunner’s front sight was mounted on a wind vane to accomplish the same thing.

Firing at ground targets, you use 'negative lead', that is "trail" the target. (Quipping "Get some.......get some....." is required.)

My father in law was a B-26 tail gunner. Went thru Kingman AZ. He bailed out over France broke his ankle and spent the last months of the war as a guest of the Germans.

Those WW2 training films are so neat to watch. My nephew introduced me to the You Tube program on the computer and I have watched several.

The only family member with airplane experience was my wife’s Grandfather. He was a Ferry Pilot in WWII. He found out in basic he wasn’t fit for combat for whatever reason, but he was really smart and a pilot so they put him to work bringing planes from the Grumman factories to the ports on the West Coast.

He said he initially had rudimentary training shooting skeet, but since he wasn’t going to go overseas as a gunner it was very brief.

He flew for the whole war in Wildcats, Hellcats and Avengers and some other planes for Grumman as they moved them across the country. Many of his peers were female pilots doing their part in the WASP ranks.

Stay safe.