Posted on 08/23/2022 5:54:19 AM PDT by daniel1212
See this waist gunner in a B-17, flying at 28,000 feet? It’s -42 degrees below zero heading for -60 below and his fingers will start to freeze in one minute if unprotected! And if his M2 .50 jams, or needs to have a new ammo belt, to continue to protect his segment of the bomber’s defensive “box”, he WILL have to take off those gloves, and he WILL lose the tips of his fingers, guaranteed. And if this young man, aprox. 20 years old, ever gets back home to Yourtown, USA…he won't have the tips of his fingers and all of his toes.
“Deep frostbite (the most severe kind) means that all the layers of your skin and the tissues beneath it have frozen significantly. When this happens, your skin turns white or a bluish gray, and is numb to feelings of cold or pain. It may be stiff and rubbery when touched, and your joints and muscles may have difficulty working. After rewarming the skin, fluid-filled blisters may appear within 24-48 hours, and the damaged skin will turn black.”-Healthpartners
“Severe frostbite has longer-term affects and requires immediate medical attention – sometimes involving hospitalization. In the most critical cases, tissues are seriously damaged and amputation may be needed if blood flow to the skin is permanently blocked. In other instances of severe frostbite, patients may avoid amputation, but experience lifelong numbness in the affected areas.”-Healthpartners.
My mom’s cousin, Fritz, from southern Minnesota, was the pilot of a B-24 in the ETO, and flew 25 missions…he came home missing several finger tips and toes, not to flak, but to frostbite.
(Above: Famous photo from Life, Sept 1943. of some B-17 waist gunners. You can see the electrical wires coming down powering their electrically heated clothes and the oxygen tubes plugged in to the wall. Exposed flesh freezes in a matter of mere minutes. Toes were esp. hard to keep warm, and Fritz talked about the agony of just sitting there in the pilots seat, his feet on the controls, unable to even stamp his feet as the rest of the crew constantly did. ...
Bomber missions to Germany from England were often 8–10 hours long and the planes were unheated and open to the outside air as the pictures shows…and just imagine how hard it is to complete tasks in that uncomfortable clothing — from the mask to the boots.
The crew wore electrically heated suits and heavy gloves that provided some protection against temperatures that could dip to -60 degrees below zero…but often short-circuited. Once above 10,000 feet they donned oxygen masks as the bombers continued to climb to their operational level that could be as high as 29,000–32,000 feet. Approaching the target, each crew member would additionally don a 32-pound flak suit and a steel helmet designed to protect against anti-aircraft fire. Parachutes were too bulky to be worn all the time, but crewmen did wear a harness that allowed them to quickly clip on their parachute when needed…(but, oh, yeah, about that parachute: Bomber crewmen weren’t trained to jump out of airplanes with parachute. They were simply given instructions.) ...
(Above: One of the special features of the Ball Turret Gunner was extra cold…hanging down in the 200 mph air stream at those high altitudes, and that turret, though well-built, wasn’t “hermetically sealed”…it was very drafty and extra cold. A miserable crew position, not to mention lonely.
(Above: Great illustration of a B-17F, showing the bright yellow portable oxygen canisters crew members needed whentheyb disconnected to the main oxygen lines to move about the ship, and many more aspects of a B-17 that kept the crew alive at 30,000 feet,) ...
"I'm sorry, sir, I've been hit..."
Here’s the actually story of one B-17 crew member:
Joseph Hallock was a 22-year-old First LT serving as the bombardier aboard "Ginger" a B-17 flying out of its base north of London. Hallock dropped out of college to enlist in the Army Air Force in June 1942. After training as a bombardier, he arrived in England in November 1943 and began his combat career on the last day of the year:...
"“In early 1944 the number of missions required to complete his tour of duty was extended from 25 to 30."
"My first raid was on December thirty-first, over Ludwigshaven. ....
After a while, with the emergency oxygen running out, we had to come down to ten thousand feet, which is dangerously low. We saw four fighters dead ahead of us, somewhere over France, and we thought we were licked. After a minute or two we discovered that they were P-47s, more beautiful than any woman who ever lived. I said, 'I think now's the time for a short prayer, men. Thanks, God, for what you've done for us.'"
“The twenty-eighth [mission]was on Berlin, and I was scared damn near to death. It was getting close to the end
Yes, officially my uncle, but he was killed many years before I was born. All of my Uncle’s I have known, so I just phrased it differently.
Historical bookmark.
My 5th grade teacher was a blood-n-guts sergeant in Korea. One story he told was about being in a foxhole on Porkchop Hill. They had bushes covering their foxhole while thousands of Chinese troops walked within inches of their heads. They just had to sit there silently until they passed, to do otherwise would have been suicide. He had a bunch of stories I can’t recall now as it’s been about 62 years, but I remember Porkchop Hill.
Ping to #40
My only uncle was also, but out of England. My mother was 14, and standing in the front yard when Army dropped off his MIA telegram. The real bad news came weeks later.
Great article, great thread. Thanks for posting.
My dad was in 460th Bomb Group. 1/12th died in action. 1/12th were POWs. Those were comparably light losses, but heavy by today’s standards. we miss all those brave young men.
Thanks. More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bockscar
My f-i-l was in the 8th, 446th group, 705th sqd.
My uncle I never met was in the 8th, 392nd group, 576th sqd.
It is good to be reminded of what vets could go thru. Quora could use more conservatives though.
God shows mercy and grace, but warns against receiving it in vain due to spiritual and moral declension. The more blessed, the more accountable.
But the article also states,
(Above: As the first US bomber to have a pressurized cabin (and it wasn’t sealed well, frankly,) was the B-29, crews risked all sorts of oxygen depredation issues: hypoxia, altitude and decompression sickness, and barotrauma and that risk was high and dangerous, and all the bomber crews got was an oxygen mask…that often didn't work, or froze up. See those flak vests developed in ‘43? 32 easy pounds.
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