It's the compartment where a B-52's ordnance is carried & from which it's dropped
But, accompanied by the roar of its massive engines, the plane gathers 
speed ... and the gunner, originally positioned in a separate compartment in the 
rear,... [DOC] [TLE] B52 Stratofortress Association [PAR] The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, in service today, almost sixty years after its first .... 
later carried the burden of the conventional bombing campaign in Southeast Asia
.