American Bomber Crewman 1941-45 by Gregory Barnes

Author:Gregory Barnes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: American Bomber Crewman 1941–45
ISBN: 9781782000501
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Published: 2012-04-26T00:00:00+00:00

An American bomber crewman sleeping below a pin-up in Darwin, Australia. Flyers rose early, sometimes well before dawn, had coffee in the mess hall, and then went to the operations room for a briefing. There they received a packet for combat flight in case they crash landed or bailed out, consisting of concentrated food, a water purifier, a compass and foreign money, depending on their destination. (Corbis)

An American bomber pilot and navigator fish for trout on the banks of the River Test in Hampshire. Crews were often given leave from their bases during intervals between missions. (Imperial War Museum D14524)

To cope with the real prospect of death, some men turned to prayer and attended regular church services, like Philip Ardery:

Part of my reaction to my luck and general combat experience was a ... resurgence of religion. Fellows who hadn’t attended services in years found themselves going to Sunday services. My religion didn’t take me to these services with regularity, but I went occasionally, not only for myself but to let the men in my squadron know I didn’t consider attendance a sign of weakness. I felt if they saw me there it might help some of them to go who wanted to but were kept from going out of embarrassment.

In my case, religion made me say short prayers before going to sleep at night and sometimes during a fleeting instant at the height of combat. I think this undoubtedly made me a better combat officer. It comforted me so that I could sleep before missions, even though I had been briefed for the next mission and knew the assignment of the morning might be my last. It helped me to say to myself with complete calm: “You can’t live forever. You have had a great deal in your life span already, much more than many people ever have. You would not shirk the duty tomorrow if you could. Go into it calmly; don’t try too hard to live. Don’t ever give up hope; never let the fear of death strike panic in your mind and paralyze your reason. Death will find you sometime, if not tomorrow. Give yourself a chance.”

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