B-17 Bomber Crew Member Gear
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 พ.ค. 2022
- Enclosed is a detailed walk around of a WWII B-17 bomber crew member’s various gear components and factoids. Discussion topics include:
1. Oxygen system. A-14 oxygen mask, A-4 walk around bottle, H-1 bailout bottle
2. FLAK Armor and Helmet. M3 flyers helmet, M-1 FLAK Vest, M-3 FLAK Apron
3. Coms Throat Microphone and headset
4. Heated clothing F1, F2, and F3 heated suits
5. Goggles
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I had a friend who completed 33 missions as an Upper Turret Gunner/ Flight Engineer with the 100th Bomb Group. According to him, the gastric distress issues that resulted from hours at unpressurized altitude are never discussed in documentaries. Somewhere buried beside a hardstand at Thorpe Abbots is his flight helmet he relieved the contents of his bowels after a mission. Not a pleasant subject, but according to him, a common occurrence.
A symptom of altitude (mountaineering ) also not spoken about.??
I ve read they were given paregoric to avoid the need to defecate.
All that equipment is just unbelievable.... These B17 crews where the bravest of the brave everyone here in the UK owes these guys a debt of gratitude... Absolutely unbelievable the majority of these crews must have had serious mental health issues losing colligues day after day .. We salute you all.... God bless you all... RIP ❤
There were also Flak curtains. Made out of the same material as the vests. These hung at the waist gun stations and in front of the pilot/copilot. Discovered this when I was going thru the blue prints while working on the CAF Texas Raiders. Worked on this plane for 7 years full time when I lived in Houston.
Man that was a dream of mine. Just to be able to work on those old girls. My uncle was a crew member not sure his position on a B-17 they were shot down over the oil fields in Germany during a bombing raid and was a prisoner of war. The whole idea of working on and restoring any WWll plane was always a dream and to see those old birds fly makes me proud knowing guys like you are giving it your all to get them back in flying condition. Be safe
I was so sad to hear of that fatal mid-air collision. I can't even bear to watch the video.
I can’t even imagine the courage it required to undertake these missions.
God Bless.
Those poor guys were stressed all the time, even when on base. They new their chances of completing the required missions with out getting killed or shot down were slim.
I knew an old man that was a tail gunner, on a B17, and he told me the stress they were under was tough to deal with. He was one of the lucky ones that made it home, but he lost a lot of friends. He said cleaning out the lockers of the guys that didn’t make it was really hard, because the thought that someone else would be doing yours next was always in your mind.
They had balls back then that’s for sure.
God bless them all, for what they did and sacrificed to do it! No young man/woman should have to see what they saw🙏🏻
Amazing the amount of equipment and prep needed for brave airman to go into a very high combat casualty environment....Greatest Generation !
My Dad was a B-17 tail gunner, he brought a lot of this equipment home. Note they wore silk gloves under the sheep skin gloves in order to fix a gun problem. This kept their skin from sticking to the metal. Crews would bring extra armor on board, until a bomber crashed trying to get airborne. Too much weight was the cause!
Hey Jeff, did you pester your dad -morning, noon and night - about his war stories? Did you pester your dad - let me try on those boots, those overalls, them gloves, that helmet!! Oh, and tell me that story again? Millions of kids would have pestered dad, grandad after the war, looking through trunks. Damon, l certainly would be.
I really liked this very comprehensive vid. Really informative.
My father in law trained as a pilot in B-17s during WW II. Later transferred to B-29s. He took his own life in '69. I sure do miss him, and wish he had stuck around for us.
We still have his ancient 8 mm home movies of his beautiful silver B-29 taken right after the war.
I just can't believe that anyone aboard would have a ghost of a chance to shuck their gear and don a parachute in a B-17 going down out of control.
sorry to hear that,,,a great deal of the situation with vets,,talked about now,,,,its a never ending battle, for some and it usually returns at night,,,viet volunteer,,,my father 48 B17 missions
Thank you for the video my dad was in the 6th Air Force as a waist gunner. He never talked about his experience however during the end of his life when he was struggling with cancer at times as he slept he would get cold and mutter things like “my reostat isn’t working” or “my tank is running low” he must have been having nightmares of running low on oxygen. now After all these years I get the connection! And I do remember having a few white silk scarfs around with the embroidered insignias of the Army Air corps.
WOW 🙏
Your equipment videos are the best on youtube.
The book by John Comer, Combat Crew, is a good read, but it also describes life as a Flight Engineer , mid upper turret gunner or a B17 through a full tour of missions .
Fascinating!
Since i was young Ive heard about how many planes were produced and lost, how many machine guns they carried, the horsepower of their engines, their range, the weight of bombs they carried, the Norden bombsight, etc., all of which ARE important and interesting. AND we've all heard of The Arsenal of Democracy and seen the mass production lines that produced those planes in their thousands and tens of thousands. AND the training of crews to operate those planes.
But the scope and depth of this video adds huge scope and depth to my appreciation of WW2 as an "industrial war". Indeed, your video has greatly engaged my imagination!
Without the technology/gear that you discuss, NO bombers climb into the stratosphere, fly over Germany through flak and fighters, to attack the Reich's war industry.
And this view of the gear/technology leads me to think, on the one hand, of the scientists and engineers who studied the need for oxygen at various heights and activity levels, etc., and the technology for handling compressed oxygen in a combat environment, etc, etc, etc, etc. Then, in the other direction, one is led to the think about what must have been tens of thousands of factories employing millions of workers producing every part needed for building every rheostat needed for the oxygen systems on every bomber.
Etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, ... ad infinitum.
another great video ... and haven't heard the term "rheostat" for a long time ... my dad told me that the 12 O'Clock High (the TV show) wasn't very realistic since the crews were always underdressed ... thanks again for another good show, i learned a lot.
A video on the uniforms would be good. E.g. the B-2 jackets, electrically-heated suits, and so on. The gear for something like a B-25 at lower level would be very different, of course.
This is a good channel. Great information.
Imagine doing this day after day ... ALL these airmen were HEROES .....
Another fantastic addition to the B17 series. Great video!
"We" have to make these videos available to visitors at the Mighty 8th USAAF museum in Savannah Georgia.!
Wow! Thank you that solved a lot of things ive always wondered about with fortress bomber crews😎🇦🇺👍
my father Radio op,,48 missions,,,had a fire in his heated flak suit,,,terrible to deal with wearing everything else,,he also didnt have a lot of faith in the flack helmet,,cumbersom and difficult with headsets on and trying to figure everything,,,,when he was flak hit it was in the leg,,,he did mention a new crew so cautious ,nerves etc. they just about put the helmets on in the messhall before the take off,,
they crashed taking off,,all lost,,,mission one for them
VERY COOL! That is totally awesome that you have all of that gear! Must have taken you a long time and a small fortune to collect all of that!
Brilliant, i have most of that kit!!! keep the vids coming all the best
The B-17 relatively low bomb load (4000lb) might be explained by all this heavy protection for the crew. Some British Lancasters could carry 20000 lb bomb load.
Yep. The Mosquito could carry as much bomb load (4,000 lb) with just two crew being put at risk to deliver it. The B17s made no sense for the delivered bomb load. Their strategic value in being there in daylight was to force the Luftwaffe to commit fighters to take them away from the Soviet front (a strategic 'win' in itself) and hope to down fighter planes and kill pilots. In the long run the US could produce more 4 engine bombers than Germany could produce fighters so attrition in materiel was always going to work out in the US favour. 10 crewmen sent up to fight single seat fighters was expensive in human life but it worked, kinda. Again, the US could train 10 times more aircrew than Germany given a long enough timeframe. And later when the USAAF leaders allowed the extensive use of drop tanks on fighters (having been against them for reasons that seem nonsense in hindsight but seemed to make sense to them at the time) the bombers were the bait that brought up fighters for the P47s and P51s to fight against. If you just wanted to get bombs on ground targets there were much cheaper alternatives in terms of both blood and treasure than a B17 but that was never the sole consideration, despite the claims of the USAAF leadership at the time.
Fascinating. Thank you!
Thanks Keith, I am fascinated by this topic!
Great video. In-depth and informative. Thank you.
This is such great in depth info on this stuff, I have just recently become more and more interested in bomber gear (cuz it would be nice to have such warm gear in New York winters ) But its just amazing the stuff they had to do this incredibly dangerous job! Thank you!
Man, that’s some garage ya got there! Excellent, thorough info. Subbed!
I'd have all that gear IN the house, how cool!
Thank you for posting.
A friend of mine had a WW2 USAAF flak vest with much more pronounced vertical ribbing than the one pictured, and in a lighter colour. I suspect it must have been one of the UK-production ones.
Great Video. Thank you.
Such a informative channel about WW2 aircraft system, keep up the good work.
Thanks will do.
Those insulated suits must have been miserable for the first and last little bit of summer time missions
And then some Hamish. Imagine wanting to go for a pee😮
Good info. Thanks!
thank you for the video. Was looking into what sort of mic bomber crews used (integrated in the oxygen mask or a throat mic), for my own collection. All my gunner headpiece needs now is only the oxygen mask
Todays average young person COULD not & WOULD not be able to handle being in a B-17 or any OTHER type of airplane at war! We should greatly thank & honor the ones that serve in our Military & love America enough to do it! 💪🏽🙂👆🏽🇺🇸
well done video, your channel is a wealth of information and a work of love. Best Wishes, Paul in Orlando
Many thanks!
@@WWIIUSBombers many years ago I had collected many of the things in the video, rummaging Surplus Stores in the 1960's in different cities my family would visit, my dad thought I was nuts......unfortunately, everything was given away.....fond memories....your videos are great, here 10 seconds of Bomber action I took last year, hope you like.....Paul...th-cam.com/video/2164atrcePE/w-d-xo.html
Had an ancestor who was a tail gunner on b17
Only one thing worse l would imagine. Being in the most hideous of all positions, the ball gunner. There is that vid / poem called death of a ball gunner.
Frightening. I was almost in tears. Another vid of B17s coming home, all banged up to he'll, a ball turret dragging on the runway....DRAGGING ON THE GROUND, FFS!!!. Huge respect for these men.
Perhaps you could do a critic of the Memphis Belle movie?
Great information thanks. What sort of valving was used to maintain the oxygen system from bleeding dry due to battle damage? & Childish question, how did they go to the bathroom in all that gear for all those hours?
Where did you get this gear it looks brand new? :)
I've been collecting aircrew gear over couple of years. All from ebay.
Do you know what kind of vehicle it is supplying the oxygen tanks? at 1: 35
Was there a toilet on these planes? How toilet-related bodily functions handled on these long flights? Were airsickness bags provided?
Flak system 25 lb 7 oz
What does ‘virtually unheated’ mean?
Is this the whatifalthist?
The Army Airforce didn't want to pay for those items, To much money they said.