johnwayne
Well-Known Member
Thought you good people might be interested in the following extract from a book I've just finished reading, 'The American Airman in Europe' by the late Roger Freeman, so well known for his numerous titles re USAAF in WWII, particularly the ETO. It's the only mention in the 150 pages of the A2 and is in the penultimate chapter on 'Personalities and Eccentrics!' and says;-
From Fred Hollien, 392nd Bomb Group Flight engineer
“It was not uncommon for the flight crew members to decorate the backs of their flying jackets with the name of the bomber they usually flew, the number of missions they had completed and the victory symbols for enemy aircraft claimed shot down. For security reasons these jackets were not allowed to be worn on missions and it became a tradition that a man only decorated his jacket when he completed his tour. It was quite common to see men with each completed mission represented by the bomb symbol and each enemy aircraft by either a swastika or German cross.
One day I happened to see a tail gunner walk by with 30 bombs, 2 Maltese crosses and 2 baby carriages painted on his jacket. When I asked him about this he said that all the other members of his crew had the same 30 bombs and 2 enemy planes that had been credited to them but as he had married an English girl who had just produced twins, he felt he had the right to show he was 2 up on the other guys!”
Wonder what happened to that jacket? Can't see many of us painting our repro's with such!!
Cheers
Wayne
From Fred Hollien, 392nd Bomb Group Flight engineer
“It was not uncommon for the flight crew members to decorate the backs of their flying jackets with the name of the bomber they usually flew, the number of missions they had completed and the victory symbols for enemy aircraft claimed shot down. For security reasons these jackets were not allowed to be worn on missions and it became a tradition that a man only decorated his jacket when he completed his tour. It was quite common to see men with each completed mission represented by the bomb symbol and each enemy aircraft by either a swastika or German cross.
One day I happened to see a tail gunner walk by with 30 bombs, 2 Maltese crosses and 2 baby carriages painted on his jacket. When I asked him about this he said that all the other members of his crew had the same 30 bombs and 2 enemy planes that had been credited to them but as he had married an English girl who had just produced twins, he felt he had the right to show he was 2 up on the other guys!”
Wonder what happened to that jacket? Can't see many of us painting our repro's with such!!
Cheers
Wayne