This must be the scariest place on or above the earth. In the B17, the ball turret could not be raised into the fuselage, so the gunner would crawl down into this tiniest of spaces after takeoff. Hopefully, he would crawl back out before the aircraft landed at the end of the mission. If the plane's landing gear was damaged, well...this turret was the bottom of the plane. There were a few horrifying tales related to this event. You can find an alarming poem by one of these men - Google "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner."