The Gunner’s identity has never been discovered
The N***d Gunner, the title of the renowned vintage black-and-white photograph in this piece, was taken during World War II. On the Services Archaeology and Heritage Association Facebook page is where the intriguing story was posted.
PBY Blister Gunner, Rescue at Rabaul, 1944.
In order to save a critically burned Marine pilot who was shot down while bombing the Japanese-held citadel of Rabaul, this young crewmember of a U.S. Navy “Dumbo” PBY Catalina rescue mission dove into Rabaul Harbor.
This iconic photo was taken by Horace Bristol (1908-1997). In 1941, Bristol was recruited to the U.S. Naval Aviation Photographic Unit, as one of six photographers under the command of Captain Edward J. Steichen, documenting World War II, he was attached to South African troops initially before being re-deployed to the Pacific theatre of operations.
When this occurred, he happened to be on the aircraft the gunner was serving on, which was used to rescue people from Rabaul Bay (on the New Britain island, in Papua New Guinea). He recalls reading the following in a B&W magazine story dated December 2002:
“…we got a call to pick up an airman who was down in the Bay. The Japanese were shooting at him from the island, and when they saw us they started shooting at us. The man who was shot down was temporarily blinded, so one of our crew stripped off his clothes and jumped in to bring him aboard. He couldn’t have swum very well wearing his boots and clothes. As soon as we could, we took off. We weren’t waiting around for anybody to put on formal clothes. We were being shot at and wanted to get the hell out of there.
The n***d man got back into his position at his gun in the blister of the plane.”
As of today, the identity of the N***d Gunner has never been established.
Photo by Horace Bristol