B-17 Flying Fortress Waist Gunner SSgt. Robert L. Taylor
Ankle-deep in spent shell casings and looking like a creature from Mars, SSgt. Robert L. Taylor, a B-17 waist gunner fires on incoming German fighters. Of all the combat positions in a B-17, manning one of the .50 calibers in the plane’s waist was the most dangerous. On a typical mission a B-17 took off with 4 tons of bombs and 1.3 tons of .50 caliber ammunition for its 13 machine guns which would be approximately 10,000 rounds.
