An Avro Lancaster fighter bombers tail gun.
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 on either the top or tail end of the aircraft with a generally unobstructed view toward the rear of the aircraft. While the term tail gunner is usually associated with a crewman inside a gun turret, tail gun armaments may also be operated by remote control from another part of the aircraft.
A more recent assertion is that twenty-seven feet was the standard length of a machine-gun belt, and that firing off the entire round was shooting "the whole nine yards." This is sensible in a number of ways- -the military is often a source for expressions of this type; it makes perfect semantic sense; the phrasing is reasonable. Most machine-gun belts were less than twenty-seven feet, unfortunately, and of course this phrase is not found specifically associated with this theory until very recently.
This one seems to be challenged but I have found enough evidence to suggest that this term came from the rear gunner on a Lancaster Bomber in WW2 using an entire clip belt when being attacked from behind,the clip belt was nine yards long.Reference is also made to a batch of concrete being nine yards,another and very probable link is the Yard on a Tall Ship that was Square Rigged had a Yard that was nine yards long...........we have our choices!
Roy
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