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Nice period photos (all jackets except A-2's)

Cyril

Well-Known Member
M-421a and another A-1

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JonnyCrow

Well-Known Member
Here's a period photo guys, and there's a story behind it, it's German Luftwaffe I know but please no politics, it the crew of a Junkers 88 KG54, one man in particular the Bordenfunker Ernst Specht I met some years ago at a event on the Lincolnshire coast when my section of my group were portraying bomber crew of KG55, nice guy, he came into the war late, when he was young and everyone was being conscripted, by 44 the war was over for Ernst when he was shot down over St Lo, he told me he landed practically in the town itself, snowing, he wandered around and knocked on a door to surrender as he knew the Americans were in occupation, knowing a bit of English, the door opened and he said I surrender, a burly GI sergeant said get your ass in here bud it's cold haha, to cut a long story short, later I helped him find where his crew were interred where the German war Graves commission failed to tell him, took me a lot of research, but the plane crashed not far from St Lo and the Americans buried them local, Ernst has passed now but he was tearful and grateful, anyway this is his story on aircrew remembered, I spent a fair bit of time with Ernst listening to his stories, when he was released from POW in UK he married the English girl Caroline he met

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JonnyCrow

Well-Known Member
Here's a period photo guys, and there's a story behind it, it's German Luftwaffe I know but please no politics, it the crew of a Junkers 88 KG54, one man in particular the Bordenfunker Ernst Specht I met some years ago at a event on the Lincolnshire coast when my section of my group were portraying bomber crew of KG55, nice guy, he came into the war late, when he was young and everyone was being conscripted, by 44 the war was over for Ernst when he was shot down over St Lo, he told me he landed practically in the town itself, snowing, he wandered around and knocked on a door to surrender as he knew the Americans were in occupation, knowing a bit of English, the door opened and he said I surrender, a burly GI sergeant said get your ass in here bud it's cold haha, to cut a long story short, later I helped him find where his crew were interred where the German war Graves commission failed to tell him, took me a lot of research, but the plane crashed not far from St Lo and the Americans buried them local, Ernst has passed now but he was tearful and grateful, anyway this is his story on aircrew remembered, I spent a fair bit of time with Ernst listening to his stories, when he was released from POW in UK he married the English girl Caroline he met

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Photo belongs to me from the Originals Ernst owned, the photo of the crew was the last night they spent together
 

Blackboxr1200S

Well-Known Member
LIFE Photographer Margaret Bourke-White poses in flight gear in front of a B-17 with USAAF Capt Hazen J. Payette, Intelligence Officer, 97th Bomb Group, 12th Air Force in North Africa - 1943

Hazen Joseph Payette, Born Oct 9, 1898, was a WW1 Naval Reserve Veteran who later obtained his law degree and worked for the City of Detroit and later in Private Practice until April 14 1942 when he joined the USAAF with a commission into Air Combat Intelligence. While serving in North Africa he advanced in rank to Captain and then Major.

Rotating back to the USA in September 1944, Lt Col Hazen Payette was sent to Tinian, Mariana Islands in May 1945 as the Intelligence Officer (S-2) of the USAAF 509th Composite Group.
The 509th CG was the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Unit which conducted the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945.

After the Japanese surrender, Hazen was honorably discharged on January 26, 1946, He returned to the Detroit area and continued his law practice until 1953 when he moved to Winter Park, Florida with his wife Helen where he lived until his death on July 25, 1962 at the age of 63.

LIFE Magazine Archives
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