Air Crew: 25 Missions. The Story of the Memphis Belle - Tail Gunner.

STAFF SGT. JOHN P. QUINLAN
Tail Gunner

Captain Morgan calls him the "horseshoe of the outfit." He has had more close calls than anybody else on the crew. Short, stocky, 24, comes from Yonkers, N. Y., worked for a carpet company before joining the Army December 8, 1941. He, too, wants to be a fighter pilot.

HIS STORY

I like being a tail gunner. It's my own private little office back there. I sit down all the time, and when I get a chance I relax. I get a lot of good shots too.

The tail gunner is in a good spot to help the pilot by telling him over the interphone what's coming up from behind. But he should be careful to call out only the ones that are attacking. If he calls every-thing he sees - one at five o'clock, one at seven o'clock, one at six o'clock - he'll get the pilot so confused he won't know what's going on. He should call out only the ones that are after him.

Don't be afraid to use your ammunition, but don't waste it. That is the best advice I can give.

YOU'VE got to be alert all the time. You never can tell what will happen. The time they shot my guns out and hit my leg, I hadn't expected any trouble at all. I thought that mission would be a cinch. It was a short raid and we were going to dip in and pop out again. Just after bombs away, I thought I saw flak. It wasn't, it was fighters.

A fighter will climb until he thinks he can give it to you, then he'll dive on you. That's what this one did. I looked up just in time to see his belly. It always gives you a funny sensation to see the big black crosses on the wings. I could hardly miss him. I got him. He burst into flames. I guess I was gloating over the one I got. Then I saw the other one. It looked like he had four blow torches in his wings. All of a sudden, it sounded like somebody hit the tail with a sledge hammer. It got my guns and me.

But the one I got the biggest bang out of was the Lorient raid. Captain Morgan went up, then down. I lost equilibrium. I didn't know whether to jump or stay there. I didn't know what was going on. That was the time the horizontal stabilizer got on fire. I guess it was the wind that put it out.