page_title: Tail gunner
section_title: Japan
hierarchical_section_title: Tail gunner / List of aircraft with tail gun positions / Japan
caption_attribution_description: AWM Caption: This is a British poster depicting a rear-gunner in a Lancaster bomber. A second aircraft is seen flying at left. Added to the slogan 'Savings is everybody's war job' are the words 'Post Office Savings Bank'. Eckersley, Thomas (Artist) H.M. Stationery Office (Publisher) Johnson, Riddle &amp; Co. Ltd. (Printer);
context_page_description: A tail gunner or rear gunner is a crewman on a military aircraft who functions as a gunner defending against enemy fighter attacks from the rear, or "tail", of the plane. The tail gunner operates a flexible machine gun emplacement in the tail end of the aircraft with an unobstructed view toward the rear of the aircraft. While the term tail gunner is usually associated with a crewman inside a gun turret, the first tail guns were operated from open apertures within the aircraft's fuselage, like in the Scarff ring mechanism used in the British Handley Page V/1500, and also, in the most evolved variants of this type of air-to-air anti-aircraft defense, they may also be operated by remote control from another part of the aircraft, like in the American B-52 bombers.
context_section_description: Kawanishi H3K – patrol flying boat (open tail gunner position)
  Kawanishi H6K – patrol flying boat (closed gun turret position, as all the following)
  Kawanishi H8K – patrol flying boat
  Mitsubishi G4M – medium bomber
  Mitsubishi Ki-67 – medium bomber
  Nakajima G8N – heavy bomber
  Yokosuka H5Y – patrol flying boat
caption: British Second World War poster depicting the tail gunner of an Avro Lancaster bomber
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