The View From the Bottom Up

Merriam Press World War 2 Memoir SeriesBob Gilbert was a ball turret gunner in a B-17 with the 533rd Bomb Squadron, 381st Bomb Group, Eighth Air Force, Ridgewell, England.Out of the harshness of the Great Depression were produced the people who would fight World War Two in the factories and on the battlefields. Though very human in their failings, they were a generation or so of people who were not particularly self-absorbed or frivolous. As history has shown, they were able to face with fierce dedication the terrible forces of the Axis Powers and beat them. This story observes one of these young persons as he grows rapidly to adulthood, along with his peers, experiencing love, fear and having deep feelings of dedication to protect his country...and is told at times with some humor.This memoir is the story of a young aerial machine gunner, on a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, who had to grow up fast. He participated as a teenaged enlisted man in the World War II Big League of air war...the ETO. In his turret hanging under that storied bomber, he was positioned to defend his bomber from the Luftwaffe's deadly fighter aircraft. This compelling story presents his perspective of the committed life he and his peers brought to manned bomber warfare, which is The View From The Bottom Up... literally and figuratively.ContentsPrologueAuthor's Notes and AcknowledgementsChapter 1: The Boy AwakensChapter 2: From Long Beach to TampaChapter 3: E Pluribus UnumChapter 4: Bon VoyageChapter 5: And So It BeginsChapter 6: Return to SchweinfurtChapter 7: LondonChapter 8: Of Shots and ChaffChapter 9: The City GirlChapter 10: Hamburg to Buzz BombsChapter 11: The Dog FightChapter 12: The Battle of the BulgeChapter 13: At The Palace HotelChapter 14: Big B and Valentine's DayChapter 15: The Combat Tour ClosesChapter 16: GoodbyeChapter 17: VE Day in the DarkChapter 18: The Final ChallengeEpilogueAfterwordAddenda 1: Combat MissionsAddenda 2: Medals Awarded to S/Sgt. Robert GilbertAddenda 3: Fortieth Year Reunion, SeattleReferences27 photos, illustrations and documents