A
couple overnight trips to London provided an opportunity to see several
historical places that had survived the bombings. The sad thing was to see some
people basically living in the tube (subway) and sleeping on cots along the
walls. A good memory, was going to the Palladium Theater to see the stage play
Panama Hattie featuring Bea Lilly. (Another historical note:
During an eight day tour of England that Madeleine and I took in 1984, thirty-
nine years later, we went back to the Palladium and saw the British version of
Singing in the Rain.)
Cook's
Tours
Now
back closer to the story theme. After the war in Germany ended, it was decided
to show some of the ground support personnel what their support was all about.
We flew several at a time on low level trips over France and Germany. Everyone
wanted to see the "undamaged" Cathedral in Cologne, Germany. It was
true that, when viewed from ground level, it appeared that it was about the only
building standing and was undamaged. Still standing, yes, but when viewed from
the top, the internal damage was apparent. Total restoration was later completed.
There
were also some humorous incidents during these flights. One of my preflight
functions for these so called "cooks tours" was to brief the
passengers on emergency procedures. For takeoff and landing, they were limited
to the waist area. A while after takeoff, a major from the photo lab called to
see if he could come up to the nose (where I was)? After looking around awhile
he was trying to ask me a question, but since he did not have a headset and
mike, I could only guess at what he was saying because of the noise. I thought
he was asking how we would get out, so I pointed to the nose wheel doors. He
very quickly left. After we landed, he came up to me and said he didn't see how
we could get out that way if we ditched in the channel. Ditching hadn't even
crossed my mind. At least they saw a lot, especially how welcome the White Cliffs of Dover looked to us as we were returning from some of our missions.
Typical
Mission Day
A
typical mission day starts with a wake up call, usually between one and
two a.m., followed by fried eggs for breakfast, limited to personnel
flying that day, instead of the usual powdered eggs and powdered milk.
All
members of the affected crews gather in the briefing room. There was
always some apprehension prior to the time the wall curtains are pulled to
reveal the mission route and objective. Sometimes the apprehension goes down,
other times it goes up very much. Depends on an obvious "milk run" or
a trip to Berlin. The location of antiaircraft (AA) sites is a concern, but,
believe it or not, the dew point spread noted in the weather briefing is also a
big concern. The nearer the spread gets to zero, the more probability for heavy
vapor trails. These give the AA crews and fighter pilots a huge advantage in
locating the formations.
Next
comes the task of plotting the complete route on your maps, and using
metro winds and planned true airspeeds, computing the estimated time for each
leg. Adjustments are made throughout the mission, based on determined winds and
airspeeds. Things are not as simple as that sounds, however explanations would
be too long.
Now
it is time to get dressed for the flight. The flight suit comes off and
an electrically heated suit goes on. Heated gloves are plugged in later. Next
the regular flight suit goes back on, followed by fleece-lined leather boots,
pants (with suspenders), and jacket. The soft helmet and oxygen mask are usually
kept in the flight bag until you reach the plane. The parachutes are picked up
and you go to the waiting trucks for a short trip to the plane.
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