For decades, it has been a part of the folklore shared by those who grew up around Lake Massabesic in Manchester, New Hampshire — a piece of World War II history is rumored to have been lying at the bottom of the lake since the winter of 1945. Over eighty years later, a team of researchers, engineers and students from the University of New Hampshire is using state-of-the-art underwater mapping technology to try and locate a missing gun ball turret — a spherical, rotating gun platform designed for firing heavy weapons— that was reportedly dropped into the lake from a B-17 aircraft during a refueling mission. The team from UNH’s Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center (CCOM) and the Chase Ocean Engineering Lab, went to work to locate the ball turret in the 2,500-acre lake from a WWII B‑17 aircraft (serial #44‑6694) — known as the Flying Fortress — which belonged to the 99th Bombardment Group that was en route to Tortorella Airfield in Foggia, Italy. The gun tur...