Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
A handcuffed enlistee, a burning B-17, and a stubborn ball turret gunner who just wouldn’t quit. Maynard “Snuffy” Smith was flawed, fiery, and absolutely fearless.
From Pedestals to People: Why Flawed Men Still Do Great Things
We expect way too much out of our pastors and our heroes. We put those guys on pedestals that we ourselves could never successfully occupy. To hold such folks to an unreasonable standard simply invites disappointment.
History is littered with examples. The Israelite King David killed a man and stole his wife, yet was described in scripture as a man after God’s own heart. Martin Luther King defined the Civil Rights movement with his mantra of non-violence, and was likely the sole reason our great nation did not dissolve into anarchy. However, King was also a serial philanderer who plagiarized significant portions of his doctoral dissertation. Charles Dickens was history’s alpha novelist, yet he was terribly abusive to his wife and children. Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence by day and made babies with his slaves by night. William Shockley invented the transistor and was the father of the modern computer, yet was an unrepentant racist and a strident proponent of eugenics. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That’s in the Book…
I’ll let you in on a little secret: We all suck–Every. Last. One. Of. Us.
If ever I felt otherwise, those flawed assumptions were thoroughly put to rest the moment I became a physician and started trying to fix other people’s many manifest problems. Everybody on Planet Earth is just a hot mess. That includes your sweet grandmother and Mother Theresa.
As a result, have reasonable expectations as regards the people in your life. Don’t be surprised when everybody else in the world struggles with the same stuff you do. Tragically, that’s just part of being human.
Origin Story: From Courtroom to Cockpit in Wartime
Maynard Harrison Smith was born on 19 May 1911 in Caro, Michigan. His Dad was a lawyer, and his Mom taught school. From the very beginning, Maynard was a difficult kid. He sought out trouble at every opportunity. This earned him a billet at Howe Military Academy in lieu of High School.
Like most such broken souls, Maynard Smith found it impossible to stay married. He wed Arlene McCreedy, but that only lasted three years. Two years after that, his Dad died and left Maynard a little money. The young man subsequently quit his job with the US Treasury Department and lived off his inheritance. In 1941, Maynard married Helen Gunsell and fathered a son. They split up about a year later.
Maynard supposedly refused to pay child support and was subsequently dragged before a judge. With war brewing, the magistrate gave him the option of jail or the Army. When the local newspaper ran a patriotic photograph of young men being inducted into the military, Maynard Smith was in the background in handcuffs being escorted by the local sheriff.
Uniform On, Trouble Still: Into the 306th Bomb Group
A great many folks have entered military service and discovered both maturity and depth. My time in uniform played an outsized role in my own success later in life. However, sometimes that stuff just doesn’t take. Maynard Smith was a First Sergeant’s nightmare.
Smith was a short-statured man. After basic training, he volunteered for aerial gunnery school. Prior to 1947, the US Army owned what would eventually become the Air Force under the auspices of the US Army Air Corps. Smith volunteered for the Air Corps because he knew that would mean faster promotion and more money. After gunnery school, Smith was shipped to Bedfordshire in Southern England to join the 423d Bombardment Squadron of the 306th Bomb Group.
Ball Turret Hell: Cold, Cramped, and Nowhere to Run
Things didn’t get any better once he got to his unit. Maynard soon developed a reputation for being both obnoxious and stubborn. At some point, he earned the nickname “Snuffy” Smith, no doubt a reference to the popular period cartoon strip Barney Google and Snuffy Smith. Because of his modest height, Snuffy Smith drew the duty as a ball turret gunner.
Serving as a bomber crewman was the most dangerous job in the US military during World War 2. Fully one-fifth of all US aircrew perished in the skies above Europe and the Pacific. Of all the jobs on board US heavy bombers, that of the ball turret gunner was statistically the most hazardous.
Inside the Sphere: What a B-17 Ball Turret Demanded
Duty in the ball turret was unlike anything else in the Air Corps. The ball turret was designed to defend B17 and B24 bombers from attack directly underneath the aircraft. The Sperry ball turret was roughly 3.5 feet in diameter and weighed 850 pounds. It was constructed predominantly of transparent Plexiglas and included a pair of M2 .50-caliber belt-fed machine guns. The ball turret gunner sat in the fetal position, wrapped around the two weapons. He controlled the orientation of the turret via a firing yoke.
Duty in the ball turret was, by its nature, terribly isolating. While most of the rest of the crew could interact with each other directly, the ball turret gunner was sealed inside his big plastic sphere. Because the turret was so small, there was no room for a parachute. Entry and exit were through the back of the contraption. To egress a disabled aircraft, the ball turret gunner had to orient the thing guns-downward such that the hatch faced the interior of the aircraft, unstrap, climb out, locate and attach his parachute, and then find his way to an exit door. That’s a big ask when the plane is shot up, on fire, and plummeting earthward.
Given its direct exposure to the rarefied high-altitude slipstream, the ball turret also got incredibly cold. Gunners were equipped with electrically-heated suits, but this was 1940’s technology. Those suits not infrequently failed. It took a special sort of soldier to thrive in a ball turret in combat.
Snuffy Goes to War: St. Nazaire, the Original Flak City
Six weeks after he arrived at his unit, Snuffy Smith flew his first combat mission. The target was the Nazi U-boat pens at St. Nazaire on the Bay of Biscay in France. The Germans knew this facility to be strategically critical and defended it accordingly with a dense array of flak guns and fighters aplenty. Allied aircrews called St. Nazaire “flak city.”
Aerial navigation in the days before electronic navaids was a sketchy proposition. Somebody made a mistake, and Snuffy’s B17 approached the heavily-defended French city of Brest at around 2,000 feet. Exposed and at low altitude, the big bomber was easy meat for German fighters and anti-aircraft artillery.
When Everything Went Wrong: Fire, Fighters, and a Choice
Smith’s plane was hit hard. A fuel tank ruptured and caught fire. With the fuselage now aflame, three of the plane’s ten crewmen bailed out. Smith clawed his way out of the ball turret and turned his attention to two remaining buddies who were too badly wounded to parachute.
Smith could have jumped himself, but not without abandoning his mates. Instead, he dressed the injured men’s wounds while also manning the bomber’s waist guns against attacking German fighters. The fire became so hot that it melted through the Fort’s aluminum skin. Smith expended all of the plane’s fire extinguishers and discarded as much flammable material and ammunition as he could through the gaping holes burned in the plane’s fuselage. With nothing left to throw on the fire, Smith dropped his trousers and urinated on it.
Ninety minutes later, Smith’s plane landed at the first available airfield on British soil. The massive bomber broke in half immediately upon touchdown. Ground crews counted 3,500 holes from German bullets and shrapnel. The three crewmen who bailed out were never heard from again. Snuffy Smith’s selfless actions had saved the lives of the remaining six. Journalist Andy Rooney was present at the air base where Smith’s plane landed and penned a front page story about the obstinate ball gunner’s exploits. Smith was subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor.
Medal of Honor Day… and KP Anyway
Smith was on punitive KP duty the week he was awarded his nation’s highest award for valor for arriving chronically late for command meetings. His medal was awarded by US Secretary of War Henry Stimson. Snuffy Smith flew four more combat missions after receiving his award, but was ultimately grounded due to battle fatigue. Smith was made a unit clerk but was subsequently reduced in rank to Private because he sucked so bad at it.
Private Smith went home on 2 February 1945. Despite his checkered record, his hometown threw him a rousing parade and greeted him as a hero. Smith left the military three months later.
Whenever interviewed about his time in the military, Smith had nothing but disdain for the experience. His propensity for being difficult followed him everywhere he went. Smith bounced from job to job and suffered perennial legal problems.
The Rest of the Story: A Flawed Man, A Lasting Legacy
Smith married his third wife, Mary Rayner, in 1944. He and Mary met at a USO dance in Bedford, England, and eventually had three sons and a daughter. Snuffy Smith, the deadbeat hero, eventually settled in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he died of heart failure at age 72. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
True heroes seldom look the part. Audie Murphy weighed 112 pounds when he tried and failed to enlist in both the US Marines and the Airborne, yet ended the war as the most highly decorated soldier in American history. Maynard Smith enlisted in handcuffs and left the military under a cloud. However, he was still nonetheless a hero of the highest order—a flawed man who did some truly amazing things.
Quick Facts: B-17 Ball Turret and Mission Details
| Role | Ball turret gunner, B17 |
|---|---|
| Unit | 423d Bombardment Squadron, 306th Bomb Group |
| Ball Turret Diameter | 3.5 feet |
| Ball Turret Weight | 850 pounds |
| Armament | 2 x M2 .50-caliber machineguns |
| First Combat Target | St. Nazaire U-boat pens |
| Aircraft Damage | 3,500 holes from bullets and shrapnel |
| Lives Saved | Six crewmen |
Pros & Cons — Hard Truths of a Ball Turret Gunner’s War
- Pros: Raw, human story of courage; vivid technical detail on ball turret life; keeps all dates and numbers; powerful, relatable voice.
- Cons: Grim imagery; not a gear review; heavy subject matter for sensitive readers.
Related Reads from GunsAmerica Digest
- Inside the B-17’s Guns: How .50s Kept Fortresses Alive
- WWII Air Gunners: Training, Tactics, and Survival
- Medal of Honor Moments: Bomber Crews Who Beat the Odds
Will is still trying to figure out what he really wants to be when he grows up. However, shooting guns and claiming it was work seemed like a pretty sweet hustle. As a result, Will serendipitously transformed an avocation into a vocation.
Raised in the Mississippi Delta, Will flew UH1H, OH58A/C, CH47D and AH1S helicopters operationally as an Army Aviator. He is SCUBA-qualified and has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 o’clock in the morning. Will has summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six times…always at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains.
Will has delivered sixty babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three awesome adult children. Turn-ons include vintage German machineguns, flying his sexy-cool RV6A airplane, Count Chocula cereal and the movie “Aliens.”
www.word-monkey.com
Experience:
-Professional Writer-thousands of publishing credits for dozens of titles
-Mechanical Engineer/Practicing Physician
-Instrument-rated Commercial Pilot
-Sunday School Teacher
Great story told, Doc. Thanks. As for the Catholic pearl clutching, I’m of 16 years of Catholic school education, two relatives are nuns, and I found no offense in your Mother Teresa reference.
Please don’t fret the nit pickers; historical articles are presented for entertainment, not life and death decision making.
I enjoyed your story as I have with all your writings. That people choose to criticize your work publicly can be a bit… frustrating. I’m from the school in which you criticize in private and praise in public. I have nothing to criticize and nothing but praise for this story. I was trained to be a Crew Chief on the CH-53. We were taught how to manage aerial combat while flying in a giant flying buss. Our defense was two .50 M2 machine guns. After going through all my training and being certified for all missions, the powers that be dropped the bomb. The average life span of a Crew Chief in combat was 7 seconds. 7 seconds once the shooting starts. I would have appreciated knowing that from the beginning. Regardless, I still would have followed the road I chose. Sgt Smith was a misfit but when the chips were down, he rose to the occasion and became a hero. I could only hope I could do the same if I were in a similar situation.
Thanks Doc, another well written story. I look forward to your next story!
Wow! The flak was heavy for this one! Anyway, I gave no complaints at all about your writing! Thanks from a fellow vet and doc.
Dad was in the 445th bomb group 703rd squadron. He said ball gunners borrowed money from all the crew members. They always had an excuse as to why they could not pay it back. Dad said, you may not know the ball gunner well enough to save him. But you sure would try to save the $10 debt!!
Another slice of military history I would not be aware of without your writing. Keep it up!
Thanks, Will!
Mother Theresa is a canonized Saint. Perhaps you could have mentioned that whilst you were disparaging her Dr. Dabbs.
And that was my point, brother. Even canonized saints are sinners in need of redemption.
You must keep in mind that Dr. Dabbs comes from an area and culture heavily steeped in bigotry. Catholics have long been a target. This is probably just a Freudian slip on his part. No excuse to compare, or even in the same story, with philanderers like Luther King, adulterous murderers like King David, and racist eugenic monsters like Shockley. I understand he tries to hide behind the idea that we are all sinners… but that won’t cut it. Mother Teresa most certainly had flaws due to our fallen nature. She was the first to admit it, and was her own worst critic. But the other men he cited weren’t worthy to wash her feet. Dr. Dabbs is still a gifted wordsmith and I thoroughly enjoy and look forward to his articles.
Spot on Sir. We are all sinners but Mother Theresa was certainly not horrible. She literally begged for alms for the poor and was subjected to staggering abuse. She did experience a long period of darkness and emptiness but she rose above the abuse to serve the poor.
God bless her and God bless Dr. Dabbs so he may understand. I love his writings.
Steeped in bigotry and biased toward Catholics? Are you serious? My wife was raised Catholic. You’d be hard-pressed to convince me that I’m bigoted toward anybody. If you really think there has ever been a human being who was truly pure in spirit I fear you 1) don’t well understand the nature of humanity in a scriptural context and 2) might not have ever actually met a real, live human. Mother Theresa did some amazing, wonderful things. However, in her heart of hearts she was just as broken and in need of salvation as the rest of us. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…” That includes my super sweet daughter, my limitlessly loving mother, my extraordinary wife, and Mother Theresa. That’s my point. To descend to calling me a racist because you fail to grasp my point is, no offense, both shallow and lazy.
And to your veiled insult regarding the Deep South, your bigotry is palpable. Minority kids in Mississippi are doing way better than their counterparts everywhere else in the country. Peddle your tired misconceptions elsewhere, brother.
https://freopp.org/oppblog/the-mississippi-miracle-shows-a-path-to-expanding-education-opportunity/
Dr. Dabbs, methinks doth protest too much?
First off, I never called you or even insinuated that you were a RACIST. I will say that the classic trope “my neighbor, or best friend” or in this case, your wife is a _______ …. is not the ideal “defense”; not that you need one.
I simply pointed out that your Deep South culture has a LONG history of bigotry and anti Catholic sentiment. You seem to be either denying that, or that it’s somehow different today. My point, which was in reply to a valid criticism by another poster, is that you chose Mother Teresa of Calcutta as an example of our flawed human nature. While that alone is not an issue, you further chose to include her among other examples of some fairly BAD human beings. Where you really went off the rails though, was your use of the adjective “horrible”. Really?
Instead of going on the defensive in a manner more suited to a modern liberal; taking a critique personally as an ad hominem attack, perhaps you might have addressed the issue at hand. Nowhere in your reply did I see any attempt to clarify, or better, apologize for your remarks directed at Teresa.
And, I may add, I have traveled extensively in the South including MS, and I have first hand seen plenty of evidence of anti Catholic bigotry. Most of it from so called “evangelical Christian” types, and of all ages. It doesn’t particularly bother me, as ignorance is prevalent amongst many good people. I happen to LOVE the American South.
In closing, I will again reiterate that I have cast no aspersions directly at you. I only stated indisputable facts about the historical culture of your area, and how it MIGHT have influenced your choice of language. I doubt anyone sees those as “misconceptions”, including someone as intelligent and historically aware as yourself.
Jack-
I have clearly failed utterly in making my point, which was, in comparison to an objectively perfect standard found in the life of Christ, we are all of us relatively horrible. There are websites devoted to Mother Theresa’s moral failings. However, exploring that was never my objective. M. Theresa was simply a generic tool I used in an attempt at illustrating a greater truth. Adorable little babies, when given the opportunity, still willfully throw their peas onto the floor. We all come from the factory broken. Up close, nobody lives up to their press releases.
It was the allegation that this was a Freudian slip that honestly made me itch. Down here in the Deep South we are indeed sensitive to our racist past. It is simply that that was then, and this is now. I have lived all over the world and found the South to be markedly more colorblind these days than the rest of our great nation.
No matter. I quit. It was stupid to fight over this, and I never should have taken the bait. No kidding, I do sincerely appreciate the fact that you take enough interest in my work to dissect the details in such depth. The same can be said of the admonishment down below over the use of the term “MOH winner.” At the end of the day, I’m just trying to tell an interesting story in a way that seems fresh and different in comparison to my peers.
Genuinely, thanks for your time. I’ll see you after the next iteration.
Will
“Genuinely, thanks for your time. I’ll see you after the next iteration”.
This is why we love the good Doctor!
A class act.
Fruedian Slip was indeed a POOR choice of words on my part. My sincerest apologies for that!
To your next literary masterpiece indeed!
Nothing against GunsAmerica, but I’m certain I’m not the ONLY one that looks forward to the first issue of the week over the rest!
Blessings!
Great story as usual sir. The best part has to be the pros and cons. Freaking hilarious!
Thank you for this story.
However, I must point out the worst misplaced modifier I’ve ever seen.
“Smith was on punitive KP duty the week he was awarded his nation’s highest award for valor for arriving chronically late for command meetings. ”
It should read:
Smith was on punitive KP duty for arriving chronically late for command meetings the week he was awarded his nation’s highest award for valor.
Keep those stories coming.
Seriously? Everybody’s a cynic… 🙂
I think the word you are looking for, Will, is pedant: a person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning.
Please change the story. You do not win the medal of honor. It’s not a contest you are awarded the medal of honor.
OK, I’ll bite. I’m typically pretty attentive to that as I write MOH stories not infrequently. Looking over this piece, I think I used the term awarded at every opportunity. I suppose your beef is with the term “MOH winner.” I agree with your general sentiment. However, MOH winner is a term in common use. MOH awardee just sounds lame. Nobody is disparaging the man’s accomplishments. Quite the contrary.
Doc,
I would just go with Medal of Honor recipient. Less of an opening for criticism. Still a great story though.
As a veteran, I can assure you MOH winner is not in common use, or is falsely attributed. To you award may saw lame, but as a service member who was awarded medals, it is a serious honor.
I know you weren’t disparaging him, but you as a writer should understand words mean something. An award is something which is given as a result of an accomplishment or endeavor.
Would you feel it lame if you were awarded a Nobel or a Pulitzer?
Sigh….
I write for gun magazines. The chances of my winning a Nobel or Pulitzer are fairly slim. However, “Pulitzer Prize-Winning Work” is literally the way such stuff is described. The Pulitzer is a prize intended to be won. I fully acknowledge that MOH recipients do not compete for that award.
Cut me some slack, guys. Surely we go back far enough by now that we need not dissect this stuff in such detail. Just try to enjoy the stories as much as I do. There was obviously no insult intended.
Fantastic story. The guy may have been a pill, but he was a true hero.
Another great story Dr. Dabbs. I look for your stories every day.
Thank you for reminding us that we all are inherently, and inescapably flawed… broken, and quite demonstrably sinful. Praise God for providing our Savior in Jesus Christ!!
Are your last few comments recommending a book? If you named it, I guess I missed the title.