Night and Day Bomber Offensive: Allied Airmen in World World II Europe (Pen and Sword Large Format Aviation Books) by Philip Kaplan

Author:Philip Kaplan [Kaplan, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783460519
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2007-03-26T21:00:00+00:00

TENDER CARE

Although the men who crewed the warplanes were medically rated as “fully fit for flying”, not every one of them could be regarded as a perfect specimen. There was a Lancaster gunner who had an artificial leg, and a famous fighter pilot by the name of Douglas Bader who had two. Many other airmen were afflicted with significant, if lesser, disabilities. One long-surviving bomber captain suffered from such chronic flatulence that he constantly passed wind while his aircraft climbed to altitude. So vile were his emissions (he was a dedicated drinker) that his crew formed the habit of putting on their masks and turning on the oxygen as soon as they were airborne. An Australian navigator, who flew two tours of operations, always spewed into a sickbag shortly after take-off, and rejected all suggestions that medication might be helpful with these words: “No thanks, skipper, the doc might ground me.” A member of W.W. Ford’s crew in the 92nd Bomb Group had a similar debility, and coped with it as stoically. Many an American came back from a mission with a lesion or a laceration which would have merited medical attention (if not a Purple Heart), but which he did not mention for fear of missing the next trip.

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