What It Was Like to Fight Alone Inside a B-29 Tail Gun Position Over Japan

Spring 1945. A silver B-29 Superfortress heads for Japan, eleven men aboard — and one of them rides alone, sealed in a pressurised box at the very back of the airplane. This is what it was like to fight inside the B-29 tail gun position: the cold, the oxygen, the hours of silence, Japanese fighters diving from behind, the fire raids, Hiroshima, and how the tail gunner was supposed to get out. Would you have taken the tail seat? Tell me in the comments. Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:02 The Superfortress 3:27 Sealed In 8:04 The Long Flight 10:42 Fighters 12:16 Fire 15:12 Hiroshima 16:31 Getting Out 17:58 Alone in the Tail Sources & credits Footage: U.S. National Archives (NARA, public domain) via archive.org; USAAF training films. Documents: B-29 Combat Crew Manual; B-29 Airplane Commander Training Manual (U.S. Army Air Forces, 1944–45). Photos: Wikimedia Commons. Public-domain photos: U.S. Army Air Forces, U.S. Air Force, NARA, SDASM Archives. CC-licensed photos by: CC BY 2.0: Anders Bot, Clemens Vasters, Curimedia, Eric Friedebach, Jerry Gunner, Michael Pereckas, Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health & Medicine, Paul (UK), Stéphane Gallay, Valder137, cascadevideoproductions, kitmasterbloke, loganrickert, tofer618 CC BY 4.0: APK CC BY-SA 2.0: Alan Wilson, Eric Salard, Greg Goebel, HawkeyeUK, Josh Hallett, Roland Turner CC BY-SA 2.5: Willy Logan CC BY-SA 3.0: Ad Meskens, Bubba73, Jarek Tuszyński, Mark.murphy, Spartan7W CC BY-SA 4.0: Acroterion, André Gerwing, Articseahorse, Chris Light, Djembayz, Famartin, LanceBarber, Luistxo, MChew, Michael Barera, Peter K Burian, Mike Peel, Sir MemeGod CC0: Gary Todd, Wilson44691 Music: YouTube Audio Library. Illustrations, cutaways, maps and graphics: original. Thumbnail is AI-generated. #ww2 #b29 #militaryhistory