B-17 crew survey

[Mike Abberton]

Has anyone ever seen a listing of how effective each gun position on a B-17 was? Or in other words, how many kills were recorded by gun position?

I would guess that the tail gunner, ball turret and upper turret (plus the chin turret in later models) were highest scorers. They would have the greatest field of engagement and particularly the ability to shoot straight forward or backward which seemed to be the most common attack vectors. This would also give them less deflection to deal with.

Next I would think would be the waist gunners who had a great field of view but very tough deflection shots to make typically, I would think. I can't imagine many kills were recorded by the navigator's cheek guns, the original single nose MG, or the radio operator's gun due to the limited field of view/gun traverse in those positions.