THE TURRET INCIDENTS
The turret on the 'early' Blenheims was a purely mechanical arrangement with a set of stops that prevented it from turning a full 360 degrees in order to keep the guns from firing dead astern. Were it able to, the gunner could accidentally shoot his own tail off. The seats in these turrets were required to be elevated to keep the guns in alignment.
The Blenheim V or Bisley turret could rotate 360 degrees and stayed on an even keel. The ability to fire dead astern was the chief advantage and was accomodated by placing the gun barrels further apart. To pevent the gunner from shooting various parts of his own aircraft the Bisley (Blenheim V) turret had a ring around the outside to which were fitted several microswitches. As the turret went around and came to certain strategic spots the microswitch would hit an actuator thereby cutting out the guns.
Sgt Chapman, Blenheim pilot, also mentions another arrangement with these turrets whereby the gun rotated on a ring with raised areas causing the turret & guns to lift as it turned passed the tail, props and wings.
Although most of the time these turrets worked well, it appears there was a little known but deadly serious problem with them in that there are several documented instances where the gunner 'did in fact' shoot his own aircraft or pilot. There is also a growing body of evidence that suggests these incidents and the fault that caused them, if not purposefully covered up, were prevented from becoming common knowledge.
INCIDENT 'A'
Gathered info on 113 Squadron Observer who brought aircraft back after his pilot was fatally shot. This was reported to be 04/09/1940
NOTE: Ian Blair has provided a full detailed accounting of this incident which can be found on his personal page in the "personnel" section and in the "True Tall Tales Section".
On the squadron ground crew in August 1940 was a chap named Corp Ian Blair who, as was standard practice at the time, filled in as air crew. The popular story of this incident recounts that the aircraft came under fire from enemy fighters and the pilot was shot. Corp Ian Blair, a non pilot, took over the controls and after skillfully evading the enemy fighters brought his aircraft back to base and safely landed it. For this he was awarded the DFM, posted away from 113 and shipped off for pilot training. Corp Blair went on to become quite well known, also winning a DFC with one fighter kill to his credit. Of late he is still quite a celebrity having been written up in many books, with painting endorsements, lectures, photos, and air show apperances. Oddly enough their is no mention of this incident in Pat Woodwards book, or is Ian noted in the listing of squadron awards.
Extract from memoirs of LAC Corp Norman Say, 'A Flight' 113 Squadron concerning a Corporal Armourer, Navigator named Ian who brought his aircraft back after his pilot was injured. Written late 1960s
I was responsible for the maintenance of one of them (Blenheim) in ‘A’ flight. One of my friends was a wireless operator, Hankinson, who was also a UT air gunner. In peacetime in the desert the aircraftsmen were encouraged to volunteer for aircrew and for this they received an extra shilling a day. They could not become pilots but were navigators and under training airgunners, who had to be able to use the morse code. Hank was one of these and his navigator, Ian, was a corporal armourer and when the war started out there they were in the thick of it. They went on one raid in my aircraft and we received word that they were in trouble. Well the plane came in and made a bumpy landing but got down OK. Our ambulance rushed out there and lifted out the pilot and took him to the sickbay. Apparently they had just crossed the Libyan border when the plane went into a dive and Ian called Hank on the intercom that the pilot had been shot. He managed to pull the pilot back in his seat and pulled the plane up but Hank had to crawl through from the back to help Ian move the pilot out of the seat so that Ian could take over. Now Ian had never flown a plane but he said he had always watched the pilot and knew roughly what to do. Well, he landed it successfully, but they couldn’t understand what had happened because there were no enemy aircraft near them. The plane was impounded, I was forbidden to go near it, and an investigation was started. It was found that a bullet from the rear turret gun had entered the front of the plane and just grazed the pilot’s head, knocking him out. Hank said that he always sat facing forward when flying because of airsickness but that he had not switched the gun switch on, nor pressed the firing switch. The gun electrics were given a thorough test but no fault was found. On the Blenheim the gun turret rotated through 360º and to prevent a gunner hitting his own plane while firing at and following an enemy plane there were microswitches fitted to the turret which were operated by profiles around the turret seating. They jacked the plane up into its flying position and applied pressure to the front of the turret and found that when the plane was flying the air pressure on the turret inactivated the microswitches. It still did not explain why the guns fired but they thought that Hank must have had the switch on because it was usual to test the guns before crossing into enemy territory and an involuntary movement of his finger fired the gun. I was in the clear. If the circuit had been found to be faulty I would have been court-martialled. While the investigation was under way another plane came back with bullet holes in the wings where the same fault occurred, so all our planes had to be modified. One result of this incident was that Ian was sent down to Rhodesia to a pilots training course. (Corp Say is describing the newer turret with electric switches which indicates it was the newer style turret versus the old style with mechanical stops. Because this incident took place in Sept 1940, it is assumed the aircraft in question was a Blenheim IV and that the IV had the electric turret.
Comments of Michael Shekleton, Observer who was also on operations this date.
S/Ldr Michael Shekleton, who was an Obs in another aircraft that was part of the flight this date states: The Blair event was same-day recorded in my war diary and the name of the dead pilot was P/O 'Mouse' Reynolds. He caught a single shot in the head. I did not know Blair. I'm astonished there is doubt about this incident because I was lumbered with the squadron war diary at the time and remember entering it. (Perhaps they threw all that laborously compiled junk away!) We had landed just prior to 'Mouse', and all stood around watching the landing. I think Blair, who was nursing P/O Reynolds aircraft home, conveyed the situation to Ops by Aldiss. (Note that there is no doubt the incident happened, rather there is some confusion as to how it happened)
NOTE: Ian Blair has provided a full detailed accounting of this incident which can be found on his personal page in the "personnel" section and in the "True Tall Tales Section".
Excerpt of letter home from Bernard Shelton written at Ma'aten Bagush regarding wounded pilot and Observer bringing aircraft back.
Egypt, Sept 8th 1940
My dear Mother & Dad,
Thank you very much for your letter received yesterday. I am very sorry that I have not written just lately but I have been away (Page cut by censor)
I have not yet had a chance to go over Libya, but when I do go I shall do my best to keep up the good work of the squadron. We certainly have some good fellows on the squadron now. Only the other day, two of our machines went on a raid and the pilot got wounded while over Libya so the observer brought the aircraft back and landed it. He was awarded the D.F.M. and the air gunner was mentioned in dispatches. Maybe you heard all about this on the wireless just recently.
Conversation with Corp Norman (Mark) Lamb in 2003
I do recall the super effort of Ian Blair bringing that Blenheim back at Ma'atan Bagush. That day I was on refueling duties.
Comments from coversation in 2003 with W/O Jack Barnes WOp/Ag regarding Turrets about November 1942
The technical information regarding the turrets was provided by Jack during a phone conversation. When questioned as to whether there was any problems with these turrets, without hesitation he responded that there was. Quote: "There was a problem with these, I used to go with my mate down to the airfield with the Armourers and we used to check them. This one time I found that these had been stopped and I had quite a row with the Warrant Officer in charge of the Armoury. He said it was an Air Ministry order. I never did find out why." Endquote.
INCIDENT 'B'
Gus Alder, Flight Commander of "A" Flight, Comilla, as relayed by Gus to Sgt J Chapman who was there at the time of the incident. Jan / Feb 1943
(Blenheim V) Concerning the 360 degree traverse of the turret, there is quite a story. The Squadron was on a raid down the Arakan coast and Gus Alder's gunner decided to test his guns in the forward position when the formation was near Feni. The gunner, an Aussie named Brooks, fired his guns which turned out to be out of line and some of the bullets found their way into the pilot's cabin, one of them glancing off the back of Gus' head. Gus hollered "I've been shot!" and his Obo, Corbett another Aussie, replied "who the hell shot you" Gus retorted "I don' t know but I am going to land this plane before I die !" Meanwhile the gunner, who knew who had fired the shots but not that Gus had been hit was crawling up the well of the Blenheim and when he reached the peephole area to look into the cockpit, he found Corbett who had taken off Gus' helmet, poking his finger through the hole in the back of it and said "You shot Gus". Meanwhile Gus is fighting back the black nausea and wandering all over the sky. Unfortunately, Gus was the leader that day and we in the rest of the aircraft were trying to keep formation with Gus. He eventually made a crash landing at Feni, the aircraft being BA452. All, Gus had was a large sized headache and a small hole that required a few stitches to close.
COMMENT MADE TO SGT GLYNN EDWARDS - made to him during the evac from Burma by the pilot who asked him to fill in as Air Gunner.
Amidst the noise of the engines, the words were heard, 'O.K. chum, you can act as my airgunner, but for Christ sake don't fire unless you have to .. .as we've got no cut-out on this gun, and I should hate to have our tail shot off!
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