WWII Uniforms and Flight Gear (2)

WWII Uniforms and Flight Gear
Ed Nored Private Collection
photos copyright ©2006 by Ed Nored, used by permission Bomber Crews 1 Bomber Crews 2 Bomber Crews 3 Bomber Crews 4 Fighter Pilots
F-2 Booklet F-3 Booklet

Photo #12 - In the above photo can be seen the 4 lines of survival that ran from the crewman's fight gear and plugged into the airplane. The large green hose is for oxygen. One black communication line runs from his A-11 flight helmet earphones. The second black communication line runs from his push-to-talk switch. The push-to-talk switch is plugged into the internal microphone of the A-14 mask. The 4th line runs from his F-3 electric suit. The lead cord or extension cord is shown unconnected. Hanging from the sleeve of the left wrist is the connector for the gloves, and just below I've opened the glove to expose the connecting points. The flak helmet is the type M-3. This flak helmet was the same as the G.I. steel pot worn by the infantry, but altered slightly with the addition of ear flaps to fit better over the flight helmets. The M-3 did not have a separate liner that slipped in and out. When you run your hand over the top of the M-3, it feels like fur. A flocking was sprayed over them to keep the guys bare hands from freezing to them. It showed up in 1944. Much of what is displayed here can be seen in the photo of 1Lt Ted Misthal. Examples of the M-3 flak helmet and a flak vests can be seen here.

Photo #13 - Above is the backside of previous crewman. Many air crewman would tie their service shoes to their harness, just in case they would have to '"walk back home" from their mission. The flight boots type A-6 or the F-2 felt were not practical for long walks and or running from German soldiers and angry civilians.

Photo #14 - Sometime time during the first half of 1944 and probably in conjunction with the issuing of the A-3 harness, the 8th AAF began requiring that the older type Q.A.C. harnesses and the newly arrived A-3 harnesses be color coded, as well as each corresponding parachute. This was to eliminate any chance one might find himself trying to attach a red group parachute to a yellow group harness. I make no claim that I know the exact date when the order came down to mark the parachute equipment and can only speculate based on photographs here at the 303 website, other 8th AAF websites and related books. So keep an open mind to time periods that I may associate to flight gear or events that happened.

Photo #15 - Above is the A-3 harness constructed with olive drab webbing. On each side of the leg straps of all the A-3, red group, QACs and B-8 chute harnesses you find 2 "D" rings. They are there to attach to the C-2 type one-man life raft/dinghy.

Photo #16 - The A-3 harness.

Photo #17 - Above are two authentic WWII, A-3 type QACs. The harness on the right still has its risers tacked down. Once a man connects the chute, bails out and pulls the rip cord, the force and weight of the man acts against the opening shock of the canopy. This sudden jolt pulls and breaks the tacking, allowing the parachute container and risers to be in the position you see above on the left. One veteran described how, after the canopy opened he was relieved, but thought he was falling out of his harness when the risers popped free a few seconds later.

Photo #18 - A closer look at the tacking used to hold down the risers.

Photo #19 - Above is the AN-6550 flying suit in both dark green and lighter shade color. This suit replaced the earlier A-4. The green suit seems to be the dominate one used by crews. A crew member may have worn this over the F-3 heated suit followed by the A-9 pants and B-10 jacket or he may have worn it under the F-2 heated suit. How each individual dressed for a mission certainly varied, based on the crew position and his tolerance of cold. See an example in the 360th Hunsinger Crew photo.

Photo #20 - The legendary A-2 jacket is on the left. A leather name tag can be seen on the left chest. The A-2 is one of the pieces of flight gear that capture that classic look of the first year of the bombing campaign. The B-10 jacket (center) shows up in the first half of 1944 and is a much warmer jacket than the A-2. Next is the B-15 jacket. The earliest dated photo I could find of its arrival is December of 1944. Examples are at combat crews Jack D. Breslin Crew and the Robert F. Vail Crew, both of the 360th Bomb Squadron. More examples are the 427th Robert W. Krohn Crew, the Fred E. Mitchell Crew and the James W. O'Leary Crew. Two more excellent examples are in the first two photos of the 359th Bashor Crew. In their stateside photo you can see that the supply of B-10 jacket had not yet been exhausted.
In front of the jackets are the A-6 boots on the left and the black felt F-2 boots on the right. The A-6 boot was the most widely used boot. You'll see it the vast majority of the time. The F-2 would be the 2nd most seen. A good F-2 boot example is shown on crew member Mauger at Lead Crew #325. The boot was worn both with the F-2 and the B-10 jacket/A-9 pants configuration. Also shown in the photo is the electric heated boot insert. This bootie was used both with F-2 or F-3 heated suits. A crewman wearing a light weight sock slipped the bootie over his foot and then would slip it into the A-6 or F-2 felt boot.

Photo #21 - Above on the left is the "tanker" jacket worn by many of the AAF personnel in England. On the right is a B-10 jacket with an original shearling collar. The "tanker jacket" can be seen worn by Lt. William C. Hunter, winner of the Molesworth bicycle race. To see two good examples of the B-10 with shearling collar, see the stateside photo of the Tasker Crew. This crew was a KIA/POW crew. I suggest you take the time to read their story.

Photo #22 - Above are a pair of A-9 pants and a B-10 jacket showing how many AAF personnel marked their flight clothing. It should be noted that this veteran B-10 does not show any evidence that the AAF logo was ever on the shoulder.

Photo #23 - Pictured above is the B-11 left and the B-9 on the right. I believe these showed up in early 1944 -- a very nice jacket to have in that lousy English weather. You will see crews wearing this with their flight gear, but I'm going to speculate most might have found it too bulky. In flight, where a man needs to keep moving his head around to check for planes both friend and foe, I'm sure he wouldn't have the hood up. By 1944 more and more waist windows are being covered so the waist gunners didn't have to fight that icy wind blowing in. When you went to suit up for the flight you would have to fight with that hood every time you put the Mae West and parachute harness on. If you had your chute harness adjusted and tacked down while you wore a short-waisted B-10, then changed to the B-9 or B-11, it would be too tight. These jackets, as well as the B-10, also came with a shearling lined hood and collar. There are two nice photo examples of all three jackets with the various hoods and collars in the Tasker crew photo.

Photo #24 - This photo is based on Capt James F. McNamara in the Mission #250 Lead Crew Photo. He wears the B-9 jacket over the F-3 heated suit.

[photos and comments copyright and courtesy of Ed Nored]

The uniforms and gear presented here are from the private collection of Ed Nored. Any reproduction or other use of these photographs is strictly forbidden. 303rdBG.com was granted exclusive rights to these photographs solely for historical purposes. These items are not for sale on eBay or elsewhere.