NZ Army as B-17 tail gunners

[Dave Homewood]

A few weeks ago I was chatting with an old chap here in Cambridge, Merv Cubis, who had served during the war as a soldier in the much-forgotten 3rd Division - NZ's soldiers who served in the Pacific.

He said while they were up at Guadalcanal many of his comrades were secoded to fly in USAAF B-17'sd on missions, and he said they always got the job as tail gunner as no-one else liked the role.

He even mentioned a few of the kiwis were lost in B-17's.

Does anyone know more about this? Which squadron/s mixed with the kiwis and made them temporary crews? It's unusual but stranger things have happened.

[flyjoe180]

Wouldn't a gunner position be a specialised job? Nice story about the tail guns on the B17 here www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7137

and the duties of a tail gunner here
www.arizonawingcaf.com/pages/tailgunner.html

[Dave Homewood]

You'd think so, but then his platoon had machine gunners who probably used the same sort of 0.3 or 0.5 calibre Brownings or whatever so they probably knew what they were doing to an extent. I am sure this was more for a joyride than an operational need, but they certainly went on combat missions Merv said. He never got the chance himself though.

[30sqnatc]

admin said:

You'd think so, but then his platoon had machine gunners who probably used the same sort of 0.3 or 0.5 calibre Brownings or whatever so they probably knew what they were doing to an extent. I am sure this was more for a joyride than an operational need, but they certainly went on combat missions Merv said. He never got the chance himself though.

The standard Army infantry heavy MG was .303 water coolled Vickers not Brownings. I would second the joyride theory.

Paul