Many of you may not even be able to imagine the anguish and suffering experienced by those
who are in the midst of armed conflict, right in the eye of the hurricane, and as always,
there are always those who are in greater danger of losing their lives than others.
Being a soldier during a period of war increases your chances of being sent to the front lines
never to return, however, during World War II, some soldiers had to perform special jobs
that drastically decreased their chances of surviving on the battlefield.
Today we will learn what those jobs were and how the brave soldiers risked their lives
to carry them out.
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B-17 Spherical Turret Operator
Large bomber planes took to the skies during World War I and II completing missions against
the enemy, destroying fleets, military posts and cities on both sides, leaving countless
dead and wounded, including several of the gunners who operated the spherical turrets
of the U.S. B-17 Flying Fortress bombers.
The B-17 and B-24 Liberator were designed, built and tested during the period from 1930
to 1935 even though the United States was not at war during this time, but the memories
of the terrible First World War were still fresh.
In order to protect the underside of the aircraft and help with frontal attacks, Sperry Corporation
designed a ball-shaped turret made of Plexiglas and was armed with Browning AN/M2 machine
guns, which were loaded with up to 500 rounds of 50 caliber ammunition.
These were installed underneath the bomber and had the ability to rotate 360 degrees,
making them extremely versatile in locating enemies regardless of the direction in which
the aircraft was traveling.
But despite their cool design reminiscent of famous movies like Star Wars and their
firepower, these friends were coffins armed to the brim.
To begin with, the space inside where the soldier sat was barely 4 feet wide, which
made the mobility of the person almost nil.
The entrance was nothing more than a hatch in the floor of the bomber, through which
the smallest soldier of the crew was introduced by positioning his feet on a pair of pedals
and his hands on the controls, adopting a fetal position many times for hours, numbing
them and making it difficult to maneuver the spherical turret.
Most of its problems revolved around its size.
Due to how small it was, the soldiers destined to exercise this position were forced to do
so without carrying their parachute, greatly reducing their chances of survival if the
plane collapsed.
You could hardly escape once inside.
As if all this wasn’t enough, with the passage of time this mini spherical turret became
the favorite target of enemy fighters, being the first ones to be attacked once the bomber
was located.
Tank Operator
If any of us were soldiers in war, we would probably pray for one of the 5 places inside
a fortified WWII tank.
Surely the idea of being surrounded by thick armored metal walls and having a large cannon
at your disposal sounds comforting, but the truth is that the risk was equal or greater
than any other comrade on the battlefield.
No matter which side you fought on, the life of the tank operators was not at all simple
and much less safe.
Putting aside the problems such as the obvious lack of space available to their crews, the
precarious conditions in which they had to live due to the lack of resources to shower
and the few rations of food they could carry during the long transfers and intense battles,
the greatest terror of these soldiers was to hear the rumble of an enemy anti-tank gun.
With ammunition capable of piercing several walls before hitting the target, these guns
built to deal with their opponents' tanks were formidable, no armor could stop them,
and while an infantry soldier had some chance of surviving the impact of an enemy bullet,
tank operators would hardly come out alive from a successful direct hit by these enemy
anti-tank guns.
The few lucky ones who managed to evade death mention how on some occasions the effects
of the perforation of the enemy ammunition exploded the heads of the crew members closest
to the impact, filling the entire interior with brains, pieces of flesh and metal shrapnel
produced by the fragmentation.
But the worst was the demoralizing, terrifying and traumatic effect of listening as the radio
of another allied tank went dead announcing the death of 5 comrades with whom you had
shared months or years of training and with whom you surely had strong ties, their faces
flashing one by one in front of your eyes and the certainty that your tank would probably
be next.
Soldier of the Red Army and Order 227
Hitler and his Nazi army were clearly radical, not only because of their anti-Jewish policy,
their military strength lay in the fear and drear they displayed on the battlefield.
It was precisely this that Iosif Stalin realized when on June 22, 1941 "Operation Barbarossa"
was executed, a German offensive that sought to dominate Russian territories and reach
the Caucasus to seize the oil fields, the Soviet arms factories and the agricultural
resources of Ukraine.
Faced with such an indomitable and powerful Nazi military force, the Red Army of the USSR
began to demoralize in the face of their rapid advance, often opting for retreat in a natural
attempt to save their lives.
Thus it was that Stalin, following the example of his enemy, on July 28, 1942 created the
"Order 227" which obliged every military man, whether a simple soldier or a high rank, to
remain on the battlefield, even if it was a clear death sentence, all under the discourse
of protecting "Mother Russia" at all costs, using the motto "Not a single step back".
The punishment for those who disobeyed this order depended on the rank the deserter occupied
in the chain of command, but, after all, according to Stalin's mandate, anyone who fled from
battle would be considered a coward and traitor to the fatherland, and could be executed immediately
by his own comrades.
Or in the case of a higher ranking officer, he was captured and brought before a court
martial, often meeting the same fate in the end.
The unfortunate soldiers had no choice but to remain fighting at their posts until they
took their last breath.
Some believe that this difficult and cruel decision made by Stalin was key to Russia's
ability to stand up to Hitler.
Kamikaze
Few would have the guts to sacrifice themselves for the good of their country deliberately.
All soldiers serving in the military are aware at all times of the possibility of dying in
battle, but they fight on in the hope of returning home alive.
However, the case of the Japanese kamikazes is different.
During the Second World War this select group of people were trained only to die.
They prepared themselves body and soul knowing that after their training, it would be the
last time they would get up in flight, and the last thing they’d see would be an enemy
battleship and the immense blue sea of the Pacific.
This special unit was created as a result of the Japanese army's inability to stop the
maritime advance of American ships and its culture of self-sacrifice in 1944 by the order
of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.
Their only mission was to sink as many enemy fleets as possible by crashing their planes
into the ships.
These actions managed to wipe out dozens of American ships, but nevertheless their lives
were lost in vain as this was insufficient in the face of American military power.
Just one year later, after the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese surrender
was inevitable, yet Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki summoned eleven bombers to make one last desperate
attack, of which only seven managed to hit.
In all, more than 1300 Japanese aircrafts crashed into American ships, resulting in
at least 3000 Japanese pilots killed and 7000 American, Australian and British casualties.
Strafbataillon or Punishment Battalion
Those rebellious soldiers and troublemakers between the lines of the Nazi army during
World War II had much to lose by their acts of disobedience.
This is because in 1940 Hitler reinstated a special division that had recently been
disbanded.
The punishment battalion was a concept created by the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany
in 1935 to reprimand undisciplined soldiers where they would perform hard labor and high-risk
missions to redeem themselves before their superiors and the fatherland.
In case the problem was considered insurmountable, they were sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration
camp.
Later, in 1942, this special group went from being a form of discipline to simply "Cannon
Fodder", adding to its ranks civilians undesirable to the state such as homosexuals, political
opponents, religious poeple or even immigrants who were forced to perform the most dangerous
tasks such as transporting the wounded, defending positions against superior forces, clearing
mines and taking over machine gun nests.
They were barely trained for these tasks and were only equipped with a rudimentary uniform
and obsolete weapons.
In some cases they were given nothing with which to defend themselves, in the hope that
they would die in the course of the mission.
During armed conflicts, danger lurks at all times, no one is safe, yet those brave...
or unlucky men who found themselves assigned to fill these positions needed more than luck
to get out of the situation.
If the future holds another war, we will see what new and dangerous positions arise and
who will be in charge of them.
Whether it be because they are the best to do the job or because they simply are being
punished, we will be here to tell you about them, at Copernicus’s Galaxy.