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A tail gunner or rear gunner is a
crewman Crewman is a generic term for a crew member serving in the operation of an aircraft, naval vessel, or train. The term may also refer to individuals serving in a military capacity on weapon system platforms, such as those operating a tank. In s ...
on a military aircraft who functions as a gunner defending against enemy fighter or interceptor attacks from the rear, or "tail", of the plane. The tail gunner operates a flexible machine gun or
autocannon An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bul ...
emplacement in the tail end of the aircraft with an unobstructed view toward the rear of the aircraft. While the term ''tail gunner'' is usually associated with a crewman inside a
gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechanism ...
, the first tail guns were operated from open apertures within the aircraft's fuselage, such as the Scarff ring mechanism used in the British
Handley Page V/1500 The Handley Page V/1500 was a British night-flying heavy bomber built by Handley Page towards the end of the First World War. It was a large four-engined biplane, which resembled a larger version of Handley Page's earlier O/100 and O/400 bombers ...
, which was introduced during latter months of the First World War. Increasingly capable tail gunner positions were developed during the interwar period and the Second World War, resulting in the emergence of the powered turret and fire control systems incorporating radar guidance. In particularly advanced tail gunner arrangements, the tail armament may be operated by remote control from another part of the aircraft, such as the American
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Air ...
, a
strategic bomber A strategic bomber is a medium- to long-range penetration bomber aircraft designed to drop large amounts of air-to-ground weaponry onto a distant target for the purposes of debilitating the enemy's capacity to wage war. Unlike tactical bombers, ...
first introduced during 1955.


History

The first aircraft to ever have incorporated a tail gunner position was the Sikorsky ''Ilya Muromets'' bomber, which became active during the First World War and the last years of the Russian Empire. The ''Ilya Muromets'' prototype flew for the first time in 1913, with no guns on board and no rear position for the crew. When the war broke out, in 1914, only a few ''Ilya Muromets'' aircraft had been built, but increasing numbers were required because of the
war effort In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative siz ...
. After having entered the mass-production phase and having seen combat all along the first year of war against the fighter planes of the German Empire, a rear-defending position appeared to the
Imperial Russian Air Service The Imperial Russian Air Service (russian: Императорскій военно-воздушный флотъ, , Emperor's Military Air Fleet) was an air force founded in 1912 for Imperial Russia."''12 августа 1912 года прика ...
to be increasingly vital to protect both the plane and its crewmen. Such an arrangement, during March 1916, saw light of day on the model S-25 (variant Geh-2) of the Sikorsky ''Ilya Muromets'' bomber plane. This aircraft was the first in history to include on its ending tail area a gunner position. Mass-production of ''Ilya Muromets'' bomber commenced, with the final example being completed in 1918, by which time in excess of 80 aircraft had been reportedly completed. Those ''Ilya Muromets'' that served after the Russian Revolution were inducted into the Soviet Air Forces. Another example of a First World War era aircraft that equipped with a tail gunner position was the British
Handley Page V/1500 The Handley Page V/1500 was a British night-flying heavy bomber built by Handley Page towards the end of the First World War. It was a large four-engined biplane, which resembled a larger version of Handley Page's earlier O/100 and O/400 bombers ...
. It was specifically developed as a heavy bomber by
Handley Page Handley Page Limited was a British aerospace manufacturer. Founded by Frederick Handley Page (later Sir Frederick) in 1909, it was the United Kingdom's first publicly traded aircraft manufacturing company. It went into voluntary liquidation ...
, who designed a relatively large four-engined
biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...
for the era; it was reportedly capable of bombing Berlin from bases in East Anglia.Mason 1994, p. 108. However, the type did not enter service until the very end of the war, during the months of October and November 1918, and thus never saw any kind of combat action. The type did see use in subsequent conflicts, including a pivotal role in ending the Third Anglo-Afghan War, flying from Risalpur to Kabul to drop its payload of four 112 lb (51 kg) bombs and 16 20 lb (10 kg) bombs on the city and the royal palace, reportedly contributing to the Afghan's speedy surrender.Bowyer 1992, p. 142. Throughout the interwar period, various new military aircraft were introduced that featured a gunner position on their tails; examples included the British
Vickers Virginia The Vickers Virginia was a biplane heavy bomber of the British Royal Air Force, developed from the Vickers Vimy. Design and development Work on the Virginia was started in 1920, as a replacement for the Vimy. Two prototypes were ordered on 13 ...
, introduced to service in 1924,Mason 1994, p. 145. and the Japanese
flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fuselag ...
Kawanishi H3K (developed from the
Short Rangoon The Short S.8/8 Rangoon was a 1930s British three-engined biplane flying boat, designed and built by Short Brothers for the Royal Air Force. Background In 1929, the Royal Air Force needed urgent replacements of the Supermarine Southampton IIs ...
), brought into service during 1930. One of the first aircraft to operate a fully enclosed tail gun turret was the British
Armstrong Whitworth Whitley The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was a British medium bomber aircraft of the 1930s. It was one of three twin-engined, front line medium bomber types that were in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of the Second World ...
. Performing its first flight during 1936, the Whitley entered service with the RAF, remaining in service until the closing months of the Second World War. The tail gunner position of the Whitley would be revised on later-built models, adopting a more powerful
Nash & Thompson Nash & Thompson was a British engineering firm that developed and produced hydraulically operated gun turrets for aircraft. As part of Parnall Aircraft it was also an important manufacturer of hydraulic-powered radar scanners used on radar sy ...
power-operated turret mounting four Browning machine guns.Moyes 1967, p. 6. Across the overall history of its use in combat, the tail gunner was most active during the Second World War. For almost every aircraft model in which it was fitted, the tail gun position was constituted of an enclosed compartment inhabited by the gunner. During the Second World War, this extreme tail compartment typically conformed to the ''inside fixed gunner'' configuration, in which the gunner operated the articulated mount of
autocannon An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bul ...
or machine gun fire (usually one or two weapons); examples of aircraft such fitted include the Japanese Mitsubishi G4M bomber (which had one Oerlikon 20 mm autocannon), and the American
B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...
and
B-29 The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 F ...
bombers (which were fitted with a mount of two 0.50 Browning M2 machine guns).Donald 1997, p. 155. An alternative arrangement in the form of the ''hydraulically or electrically powered and fully enclosed gun turret''. This configuration typically rotated horizontally and mounting one, two or more automatic firearms; aircraft that featured such tail guns include the later-built variants of the American
B-24 The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models ...
bomber (various turret models were used, all equipped with two 0.50 Browning M2), and several British bombers, including the
Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirling, ...
(outfitted with a Nash & Thompson FN-20 turret with four Browning .303 Mark II machine guns),Jacobs 1996Franks 2000, p. 83. and the Handley Page Halifax (featuring a Boulton & Paul Type E Mk III turret that also mounted four 0.50 Browning M2s).''Flight'' 1942, p. 401. During the closing years of the conflict, the American B-29 bombers were equipped with a tail gun position in which the gunner still had a direct view on his target while operating his synchronized weapons, but some other gun positions of this particular model of Boeing bomber were, for the first time in an aircraft, operated from other parts of the plane, each one spotting the target by means of a periscopic viewing system.Brown 1977, p. 80.Williams and Gustin 2003, pp. 164–166. Following the end of the conflict, the postwar period saw more and more subsequent tail gun positions in aircraft inherited this viewing and sight method, ending afterwards with added radar sights and radar targeting systems, early testing of which had occurred during the Second World War; one such example was the radar-aimed FN121 turret that was fitted to some Lancaster and Halifax bombers was introduced during 1944. Another phenomenon that heavily affected the tail gunner's future came in the form of aircraft such as the de Havilland Mosquito. While many aviation firms entered heavy designs with new high-powered engines and multiple defensive turrets, such as the
Avro Manchester The Avro 679 Manchester was a British twin-engine heavy bomber developed and manufactured by the Avro aircraft company in the United Kingdom. While not being built in great numbers, it was the forerunner of the famed and vastly more successfu ...
and Halifax bombers, de Havilland promoted the concept of a compact bomber that lacked defensive turrets and instead relied upon its speed.Sharp and Bowyer 1971, p. 31. Despite pressure by the Air Ministry to arm their proposal, de Havilland made no design changes and built the Mosquito as envisaged.Bowman 2005, p. 11. When the type commenced introduction 1941, the aircraft was one of the fastest operational aircraft in the world.Bowman 2005, p. 21. In practice, the Mosquito proved its effectiveness; despite an initially high loss rate, the bomber variants ended the war with the lowest recorded losses of any aircraft in RAF Bomber Command service. Due to its success, aspects such as speed and altitude performance were often prioritised over defensive armaments on future bomber aircraft, such as the widely procured
jet-powered Jet propulsion is the propulsion of an object in one direction, produced by ejecting a jet of fluid in the opposite direction. By Newton's third law, the moving body is propelled in the opposite direction to the jet. Reaction engines operating on ...
English Electric Canberra The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation, jet-powered medium bomber. It was developed by English Electric during the mid- to late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havilla ...
.Gunston and Gilchrist 1993, p. 53.Walker 8 May 1969, pp. 758, 760–761. The tail gunner was last heavily used in combat during the Vietnam War on the United States Air Force's (USAF) large
bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an aircr ...
s. By this point, the position has become largely obsolete due to advancements in long-range
air combat ''Air Combat'' is a 1995 combat flight simulator developed and published for the PlayStation by Namco. Players control an aircraft and are tasked with completing a series of missions, with objectives ranging from destroying formations of enemie ...
weapons such as
air-to-air missile The newest and the oldest member of Rafael's Python family of AAM for comparisons, Python-5 (displayed lower-front) and Shafrir-1 (upper-back) An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying a ...
s, as well as modern detection and
countermeasure A countermeasure is a measure or action taken to counter or offset another one. As a general concept, it implies precision and is any technological or tactical solution or system designed to prevent an undesirable outcome in the process. The fi ...
s against such armaments. On 18 December 1972, during
Operation Linebacker II Operation Linebacker II was an aerial bombing campaign conducted by U.S. Seventh Air Force, Strategic Air Command and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 against targets in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) during the final period of U ...
, USAF B-52 Stratofortresses of the Strategic Air Command conducted a major bombing campaign against North Vietnam. As the bombers approached the target, they would by heavily engaged by North Vietnamese anti-aircraft units, firing barrages of
Surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...
s (SAMs) that exploded around the Stratofortresses.McCarthy 2009, p. 139. After completing its bombing run, Stratofortress ''Brown III'' was warned of
Vietnam People's Air Force The Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF, ), formally refers itself as the Air Defence - Air Force (ADAF, ) or the Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF, ), is the aerial warfare service branch of Vietnam. It is the successor of the former North Vietnamese ...
(NVAF-North Vietnamese Air Force) MiGs. Brown III's tail gunner, SSGT Samuel O. Turner, shot down a
MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nickna ...
interceptor, becoming the first tail gunner to shoot down an enemy aircraft since the Korean War. On 24 December 1972, during the same bombing campaign, B-52 Stratofortress ''Diamond Lil'' was attacking railroad yards at
Thái Nguyên Thái Nguyên () is a city in Vietnam. It is the capital and largest city of Thái Nguyên Province. The city is listed as a first class city and is the ninth largest city in Vietnam. It has long been famous throughout Vietnam for its Tân Cư� ...
when the tail gunner detected a MiG-21 away climbing to intercept.McCarthy 2009, p. 141. The aircraft took evasive action and dropped chaff and flares while the gunner fired around 800 rounds from , causing the MiG-21 to fall, on fire. That incident was the last tail gunner to shoot down an enemy aircraft with machine guns during wartime. The final combat usage of tail gunners by the United States Air Force occurred in 1991, during the Gulf War. During the conflict, a missile struck a B-52 by locking onto the tail gunner's radar; it is disputed whether or not it was unintentional friendly fire by an F-4 Phantom, or if an Iraqi
MiG-29 The Mikoyan MiG-29 (russian: Микоян МиГ-29; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a twin-engine fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the M ...
had successfully fired upon the aircraft. The B-52 escaped heavy damage, but the incident motivated the decision to discontinue use of the position throughout the fleet. On 1 October 1991, Master Sergeant Tom Lindsey became the last USAF tail gunner to serve on a B-52 sortie.


Operational practices

The purpose of the tail gunner was principally to act as a lookout for attacking enemy fighters, particularly upon British bombers operating at nighttime. As these aircraft operated individually instead of being part of a bombing formation, the bombers' first reaction to an attacking night fighter was to engage in radical evasive maneuvers such as a corkscrew roll; firing guns in defense was of secondary importance. The
British slang British slang is English-language slang originating from and used in the United Kingdom and also used to a limited extent in Anglophone countries such as Ireland, South Africa, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, especially by British expat ...
term for tail gunners was "Tail-end Charlies", while in the '' Luftwaffe'' they were called ''Heckschwein'' ("tail-end pigs"). Both the specific armament and arrangement of the tail gun varied considerably between countries. During the Second World War, the majority of United States Army Air Forces heavy bomber aircraft, such as the
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...
and
Boeing B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...
, used a fixed gunner position with the guns themselves in a separate mounting covering an approximately 90-degree rear arc. Typical armament was two 0.50 inch
M2 Browning machine gun The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, ...
s. In contrast, Royal Air Force heavy bombers, such as the
Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirling, ...
and Handley Page Halifax, used a powered
turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * M ...
capable of 180-degree rotation containing the tail gunner and four 0.303 inch
Browning machine gun Browning machine guns are a family of machine gun designs by John Browning, a prolific weapon designer. These include: *M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun, based on a design dating to 1889, was the first successful gas-operated machine gun to enter ...
s. A similar arrangement was used in the American
B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models d ...
heavy bomber (but with two 0.50 inch heavy machine guns.) Most British turrets were manufactured by two companies
Nash & Thompson Nash & Thompson was a British engineering firm that developed and produced hydraulically operated gun turrets for aircraft. As part of Parnall Aircraft it was also an important manufacturer of hydraulic-powered radar scanners used on radar sy ...
and
Boulton & Paul Ltd Boulton & Paul Ltd was a British general manufacturer from Norwich, England that became involved in aircraft manufacture. Jeld Wen Inc. bought Boulton & Paul (along with another joinery company John Carr) from the Rugby Group plc in 1999 to ...
, it was common for the same turret model to be fitted to a number of different aircraft. The majority of wartime
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
and
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...
aircraft, including smaller
ground attack aircraft An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pre ...
and
dive bomber A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact througho ...
s, lacked a tail gunner position; instead, there was commonly a dorsal gun fitted behind the cockpit or ventral gun along the belly of the aircraft replaced the tail gunner position covering the tail. This position was blocked by the fuselage but allowed better weight distribution. In the autumn of 1944, the British began deploying Lancasters fitted with the Automatic Gun-Laying Turret, which was fitted with a 3 GHz (9.1 cm) radar. The image from the radar's cathode ray tube was projected onto the turret's gunsight, allowing the gunner to fire on targets in complete darkness, with corrections for lead and
bullet drop External ballistics or exterior ballistics is the part of ballistics that deals with the behavior of a projectile in flight. The projectile may be powered or un-powered, guided or unguided, spin or fin stabilized, flying through an atmosphere or ...
being automatically computed. Due to it having the frequency that it did, it might potentially be spotted by any Luftwaffe night fighter fitted with the ''Funk-Gerät 350 Naxos'' radar detection system, which was primarily used to home in on the earlier H2S bombing radar system's emissions. One important development for the Luftwaffe that never made it onto its larger night fighters or strategic bomber designs would have been the Borsig firm's "quadmount", hydraulically-powered ''Hecklafette'' HL 131V manned tail turret, fitted with a quartet of the firm's own
MG 131 machine gun The MG 131 (shortened from German: ''Maschinengewehr'' 131, or "Machine gun 131") was a German 13 mm caliber machine gun developed in 1938 by Rheinmetall-Borsig and produced from 1940 to 1945. The MG 131 was designed for use at fixed, flexible or ...
s. Prototype examples of the HL 131V were trialed in the late spring and summer of 1943 on a trio of He 177A-3 examples set aside as the V32 through V34 prototypes. This innovative design never made it to production status, only existing as a series of engineering department mockups with Heinkel and Junkers, among others (for their aircraft designs that were intended to mount them) and as the aforementioned working prototypes. The HL 131V turret's design was advanced for a German-origin manned emplacement, using hydraulic drive to both elevate the turret's side-mount gunmount elevation units through a +/- 60º vertical arc either side of level, with a capability for horizontal traverse (of the entire turret) of some 100º to either side, all at a top traverse angular speed of 60º per second.


List of aircraft with tail gun positions


France

* Breguet Br.521 Bizerte – maritime patrol flying boat


Germany

* Blohm und Voss BV 238 – transport flying boat (some versions only) *
Dornier Do 24 The Dornier Do 24 is a 1930s German three-engine flying boat designed by the Dornier Flugzeugwerke for maritime patrol and search and rescue. A total of 279 were built among several factories from 1937 to 1945. Design and development The Dorni ...
– maritime patrol flying boat *
Gotha Go 242 The Gotha Go 242 was a transport glider used by the '' Luftwaffe'' during World War II. It was an upgrade over the DFS 230 in both cargo/troop capacity and flight characteristics. It saw limited combat action. There were multiple variants. De ...
– transport *
Junkers Ju 290 The Junkers Ju 290 was a large German, four-engine long-range transport, heavy bomber and maritime patrol aircraft used by the Luftwaffe late in World War II that had been developed from an earlier airliner. Design and development The Junkers ...
– long range patrol/transport *
Heinkel He 177 The Heinkel He 177 ''Greif'' (Griffin) was a long-range heavy bomber flown by the ''Luftwaffe'' during World War II. The introduction of the He 177 to combat operations was significantly delayed, by both problems with the development of its ...
– heavy bomber


Japan

* Kawanishi H3K – patrol flying boat (open tail gunner position) * Kawanishi H6K – patrol flying boat (closed gun turret position, as all the following) * Kawanishi H8K – patrol flying boat * Mitsubishi G4M – medium bomber * Mitsubishi Ki-67 – medium bomber *
Nakajima G8N The Nakajima G8N ''Renzan'' (連山, "Mountain Range") was a four-engine long-range bomber designed for use by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Navy designation was "Type 18 land-based attack aircraft" (十八試陸上攻撃機); the Allied code n ...
– heavy bomber * Yokosuka H5Y – patrol flying boat


Netherlands

*
Fokker T.V The Fokker T.V was a twin-engine bomber, described as an "aerial cruiser", built by Fokker for the Netherlands Air Force. Modern for its time, by the German invasion of 1940 it was outclassed by the airplanes of the ''Luftwaffe'', although it w ...


United Kingdom

*
Armstrong Whitworth Whitley The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was a British medium bomber aircraft of the 1930s. It was one of three twin-engined, front line medium bomber types that were in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of the Second World ...
(introduced 1937) – medium bomber; initially equipped with a manually operated tail turret featuring a single Lewis gun, it successively received 2- and then 4-gun Nash & Thompson turrets. *
Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirling, ...
(introduced 1942) – heavy bomber; 4-gun Nash & Thompson tail turrets: some late-war aircraft received ''Village Inn'' automatic radar aiming and others were fitted with a
Rose turret The Rose turret (sometimes known as the Rose-Rice turret) was a gun turret fit to the rear position of some British Avro Lancaster heavy bombers in 1944–45. It was armed with two American light-barrel Browning .50-calibre AN/M2 heavy machine ...
. *
Avro Manchester The Avro 679 Manchester was a British twin-engine heavy bomber developed and manufactured by the Avro aircraft company in the United Kingdom. While not being built in great numbers, it was the forerunner of the famed and vastly more successfu ...
(introduced 1940) – heavy twin engine bomber. *
Blackburn Iris The Blackburn Iris was a British three-engined biplane flying boat of the 1920s. Although only five Irises were built, it was used as a long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft by the Royal Air Force, where it equipped a squadron for four ye ...
(introduced 1929) – patrol flying boat; Lewis guns on a Scarff ring in the extreme tail * Handley Page Halifax (introduced 1940) – heavy bomber; 4-gun Boulton Paul tail turret *
Handley Page V/1500 The Handley Page V/1500 was a British night-flying heavy bomber built by Handley Page towards the end of the First World War. It was a large four-engined biplane, which resembled a larger version of Handley Page's earlier O/100 and O/400 bombers ...
(introduced 1918) – heavy bomber; Lewis guns on a Scarff ring in the extreme tail * Short Singapore (introduced 1935) – patrol flying boat; Lewis guns on a Scarff ring in the extreme tail *
Supermarine Stranraer The Supermarine Stranraer is a flying boat designed and built by the British Supermarine Aviation Works company at Woolston, Southampton. It was developed during the 1930s on behalf of its principal operator, the Royal Air Force (RAF). It w ...
(introduced 1937) – patrol flying boat * Short Stirling (introduced 1940) – heavy bomber; 4 x 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine guns in the extreme tail turret *
Short Sunderland The Short S.25 Sunderland is a British flying boat patrol bomber, developed and constructed by Short Brothers for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The aircraft took its service name from the town (latterly, city) and port of Sunderland in North Eas ...
(introduced 1938) – maritime patrol and
anti-submarine An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...
flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fuselag ...
; 4-gun Nash & Thompson tail turret *
Vickers Virginia The Vickers Virginia was a biplane heavy bomber of the British Royal Air Force, developed from the Vickers Vimy. Design and development Work on the Virginia was started in 1920, as a replacement for the Vimy. Two prototypes were ordered on 13 ...
(introduced 1924) – – heavy bomber; Lewis guns on a Scarff ring in the extreme tail * Vickers Wellington- (introduced 1938) medium bomber fitted with two Browning M1919s in the tail turret *
Vickers Windsor The Vickers Windsor was a Second World War British four-engine heavy bomber, designed by Barnes Wallis and Rex Pierson at the Vickers-Armstrongs factory at Brooklands. Design and development As a possible replacement for the pre-war Vickers ...
(first flew 1943) – prototype heavy bomber; tail gun aiming position controlling
barbette Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships. In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protectio ...
-mounted
Hispano 20 mm cannon The HS.404 is an autocannon originally designed and produced by Spanish/French company Hispano-Suiza in the mid-1930s. It was widely used as an aircraft, naval and land-based weapon by French, British, American and other military services, par ...
in the rear of the engine
nacelles A nacelle ( ) is a "streamlined body, sized according to what it contains", such as an engine, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. When attached by a pylon entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached ...
.


United States

*
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...
– heavy bomber; fixed tailgun position from the B-17E version onwards *
Boeing B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...
– heavy bomber *
Boeing B-47 Stratojet The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long- range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft ...
Cold War heavy bomber *
Boeing B-50 Superfortress The Boeing B-50 Superfortress is an American strategic bomber. A post–World War II revision of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, it was fitted with more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-4360 radial engines, stronger structure, a taller tail fin, and ot ...
Cold War heavy bomber *
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Air ...
Cold War heavy bomber * Consolidated B-24 Liberator – heavy bomber; *
Convair B-36 Peacemaker The Convair B-36 "Peacemaker" is a strategic bomber that was built by Convair and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1949 to 1959. The B-36 is the largest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft ever built. It had the longest wing ...
Cold War heavy bomber *
Convair B-58 Hustler The Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight. The B-58 was developed during the 1950s for the United States Air Force (USAF) Strategic Air ...
Cold War supersonic bomber *
Douglas XB-19 The Douglas XB-19 was a four-engined, piston-driven heavy bomber produced by the Douglas Aircraft Company for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during the early 1940s. It was the largest bomber built for the USAAF until 1946, and was or ...
– heavy bomber *
Douglas B-23 Dragon The Douglas B-23 Dragon is an American twin-engined bomber developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company as a successor to (and a refinement of) the B-18 Bolo. Design and development Douglas proposed a number of modifications designed to improve th ...
– medium bomber; * Lockheed P2V-4 Neptune – Antisubmarine *
Martin B-26 Marauder The Martin B-26 Marauder is an American twin-engined medium bomber that saw extensive service during World War II. The B-26 was built at two locations: Baltimore, Maryland, and Omaha, Nebraska, by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in ...
– medium bomber * North American B-25 Mitchell – medium bomber


USSR/Russia

* Sikorsky S-25 ''Ilya Muromets'' *
Antonov An-12 The Antonov An-12 (Russian: Антонов Ан-12; NATO reporting name: Cub) is a four-engined turboprop transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. It is the military version of the Antonov An-10 and has many variants. For more than thr ...
*
Ilyushin Il-28 The Ilyushin Il-28 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-28; NATO reporting name: Beagle) is a jet bomber of the immediate postwar period that was originally manufactured for the Soviet Air Forces. It was the Soviet Union's first such aircraft to ent ...
*
Ilyushin Il-40 The Ilyushin Il-40 (NATO reporting name: Brawny) was a two-seat Soviet jet-engined armored ground-attack aircraft. The first prototype flew in 1953 and was very successful except when it fired its guns, as their combustion gasses disturbed the ...
*
Ilyushin Il-102 The Ilyushin Il-102 was a Soviet experimental jet-powered ground-attack aircraft designed by Ilyushin. Once described as the "most gorgeously ugly combat jet ever," this aircraft was never chosen for production, being surpassed by the Su-25. On ...
* Ilyushin Il-76 *
Myasishchev M-4 The Myasishchev M-4 ''Molot'' (russian: Молот (Hammer), USAF/DoD reporting name "Type 37", ASCC reporting name Bison) was a four-engined strategic bomber designed by Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev and manufactured by the Soviet Union ...
*
Petlyakov Pe-8 The Petlyakov Pe-8 (russian: Петляков Пе-8) was a Soviet heavy bomber designed before World War II, and the only four-engine bomber the USSR built during the war. Produced in limited numbers, it was used to bomb Berlin in August 1941 ...
* Tupolev Tu-4 * Tupolev Tu-14 *
Tupolev Tu-16 The Tupolev Tu-16 (NATO reporting name: Badger) is a twin-engined jet strategic heavy bomber used by the Soviet Union. It has been flown for almost 70 years, and the Chinese license-built Xian H-6 remains in service with the People's Liberatio ...
* Tupolev Tu-22 * Tupolev Tu-22M * Tupolev Tu-95/
Tu-142 The Tupolev Tu-142 (russian: Туполев Ту-142; NATO reporting name: Bear F/J) is a Soviet/Russian maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft derived from the Tu-95 turboprop strategic bomber. A specialised communi ...


See also


Prominent tail gunners

*
Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...
("Tail-gunner Joe") * Wallace McIntosh


Other kinds of air gunners

* Dorsal gunner * Ventral gunner *
Nose gunner A nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which receive and expel air for respiration alongside the mouth. Behind the nose are the olfactory mucosa and the sinuses. Behind the nasal cavity, air next passes th ...


References


Citations


Bibliography

* Aoki, Hideo. "Mitsubishi Type 1 Attack Bomber (G4M) Betty." ''Airreview's Japanese Navy Aircraft In The Pacific War''. Tokyo: Kantosha Co. Ltd., 1972. * . * Bowman, Martin. ''de Havilland Mosquito'' (Crowood Aviation series). Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire, UK: The Crowood Press, 2005. . * . * Brown, J. "RCT Armament in the Boeing B-29". ''
Air Enthusiast ''Air Enthusiast'' was a British, bi-monthly, aviation magazine, published by the Key Publishing group. Initially begun in 1974 as ''Air Enthusiast Quarterly'', the magazine was conceived as a historical adjunct to '' Air International'' maga ...
'', Number Three, 1977, pp. 80–83. * Buttler, Tony. ''British Secret Projects: Fighters & Bombers 1935–1950''. Hinckley, UK: Midland Publishing, 2004. . * . * . * Donald, David. "Boeing Model 299 (B-17 Flying Fortress)." ''The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft''. Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada: Prospero Books, 1997. . * Franks, Richard A. ''The Avro Lancaster, Manchester and Lincoln: A Comprehensive Guide for the Modeller''. London: SAM Publications, 2000. . * . * Gunston, Bill and Peter Gilchrist. ''Jet Bombers: From the Messerschmitt Me 262 to the Stealth B-2''. Osprey, 1993. . * Jacobs, Peter. ''The Lancaster Story''. London: Arms & Armour Press, 1996. . * . * Mason, Francis K. ''The British Bomber since 1914''. London:Putnam, 1994. . * . * . * Moyes, Philip J. R. ''The Armstrong Whitworth Whitley''. Leatherhead, Surrey, UK: Profile Publications, 1967. * Sergei I. Sikorsky with the Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives.
Images of Aviation: The Sikorsky Legacy.
' Arcadia Publishing, 2007. Charleston SC, Chicago IL, Portsmouth NH, San Francisco CA. .
* * . * Walker, R. A

''Flight International'', 8 May 1969, pp. 758–764. * Williams, Anthony G. and Emmanuel Gustin. ''Flying Guns World War II: Development of Aircraft Guns, Ammunition and Installations 1933–45''. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife, 2003. .


External links


BBC People's War – Bomber aircrew story
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tail Gunner Aerial warfare Military aviation occupations Combat occupations