How One Gunner's 'Backwards' Turret Position Made His B-29 Unkillable — Shot Down 11 Night Fighters

How did a 22-year-old B-29 gunner shoot down 11 Japanese night fighters by turning his turret backwards? This is the untold story of Ray Morrison and the tactical innovation that saved hundreds of bomber crews. March 9th, 1945. Eleven Japanese night fighters are hunting one B-29 in total darkness. The gunner is facing the wrong direction. And that's exactly why he's going to kill them all. By early 1945, American B-29 Superfortress bombers were burning Japanese cities to ash during Operation Meetinghouse and the firebombing campaign. But they were dying in the process. Japanese night fighters—specially trained pilots with upward-firing cannons called Schräge Musik—were picking off bombers in the dark from their blind spots. Then Staff Sergeant Ray Morrison, a 22-year-old gunner from Amarillo, Texas, had an idea that made his entire crew think he'd lost his mind: Turn his gun turret completely backwards. Face the tail instead of the nose. In three months of night missions over Tokyo, his backwards turret position allowed him to shoot down eleven Japanese fighters—more than any other B-29 gunner in the Pacific War. His plane never took a single hit from below. And when other gunners learned his technique, night fighter losses dropped by 40 percent. This is the true story of how one man's backwards thinking changed aerial warfare forever.
📚 HISTORICAL CONTEXT: The B-29 Superfortress was the most advanced bomber of World War 2, featuring remote-controlled turrets and pressurized crew compartments. However, Japanese night fighters equipped with upward-firing 20mm cannons exploited a critical blind spot in the bomber's defensive coverage. Ray Morrison's backwards-facing turret eliminated this vulnerability and became standard doctrine by mid-1945.
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