WWII turret gunner training range - GIF

[Altair]

WWII turret gunner training range.




Previously:

WWII tank gunner training turrets - GIF
WW2 burying a gunner at sea with his aircraft - GIF
Belarusian machine gunner with 580-round ammo backpack - photo
RAF gunner training with clay pigeons - GIF

[clavius]

I recall reading an article by a guy who described some of his training to be an aerial gunner during WW2. He said that they started them off shooting clay pigeons on a trap field to teach how to lead a target so that the bullets would get to where the target would be, rather than where it was at the moment they pulled the trigger. From there they progressed to shooting at flying clay pigeons while driving by standing in the back of a moving truck. He said that once he got even passably good at that exercise, shooting a regular trap match was easy enough to feel boring.

[mklotz]

It would be interesting to see the statistics of fighters downed by bomber gunfire versus bombers downed by fighter gunfire.

I'm still mystified by the fact that the Germans didn't develop and deploy an infrared seeking rocket early in the air war. They certainly had the requisite electronic knowledge to build the sensor and interface that to even crude steering fins. Fired at standoff distance into a formation of bombers they would have almost inevitably have hit one.