Aircrew casualities

ArtKramr wrote:

Subject: Aircrew casualities

snip

In the B-26 we had no escape hatch at all. The bombardier had along path to
creawl in front of the copilot then out the bombay. A long trip indeed. Maybe
we should break down the losses by aircraft type rather than lumping all
bombers together

You have to do that at a minimum, and also you may have to modify things by
mission type, theater etc. A B-25 strafer in the PTO is likely to have very a
different crew casualty breakdown than the same a/c doing medium altitude bombing
in the MTO.

Guy

Subject: Aircrew casualities
From: Guy Alcala
Date: 9/16/03 9:09 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:

e (and thus less effective fire from the
fighters, due to evasive action and longer firing ranges), and in the last
resort,
it being much easier to find and put on parachutes and then locate the

Interesting.We never took evasive action against fighters.we jus tightened our
formation, stayed on course and returned their fire. We did take evasive action
against flak. Find their parachutes??? We wore them from the ground up.Y'mean
the Brits didn't??? If you got hit and didn't have your chute on it was often
too late to put it on.


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

(ArtKramr) wrote:

Interesting.We never took evasive action against fighters.we jus tightened our
formation, stayed on course and returned their fire. We did take evasive action
against flak. Find their parachutes??? We wore them from the ground up.Y'mean
the Brits didn't??? If you got hit and didn't have your chute on it was often
too late to put it on.

Would you shoot the Jerry *******s in their chutes?

-Mike (I damn sure would've) Marron

Subject: Aircrew casualities
From: Mike Marron
Date: 9/17/03 5:34 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:

(ArtKramr) wrote:

Interesting.We never took evasive action against fighters.we jus tightened
our
formation, stayed on course and returned their fire. We did take evasive
action
against flak. Find their parachutes??? We wore them from the ground
up.Y'mean
the Brits didn't??? If you got hit and didn't have your chute on it was
often
too late to put it on.

Would you shoot the Jerry *******s in their chutes?

-Mike (I damn sure would've) Marron




No Mike, I don't think; I would. I have strafed and when I saw woman or
children I lifted my thumbs off the triggers. See "Strafing as if in a dream".
on my website. But I don't think you can make that decision as to whether you
would kill a man in a chute until he is right in front of you.. When you are
actually there and see the man, then we'll see. It isn't easy to kill a man in
cold blood.

Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

Mike Marron wrote:


Would you shoot the Jerry *******s in their chutes?

-Mike (I damn sure would've) Marron


I'm sure that the Allies thought that that idea was very
counterproductive because of the 'tit for tat' syndrome.

There'd be many more Allied 'chutists' than German chutists so
it's not a great habit to promote.

-Gord (I damned sure wouldn't) Beaman

(ArtKramr) wrote:
Mike Marron wrote:

Would you shoot the Jerry *******s in their chutes?

-Mike (I damn sure would've) Marron

No Mike, I don't think; I would. I have strafed and when I saw woman or
children I lifted my thumbs off the triggers. See "Strafing as if in a dream".
on my website. But I don't think you can make that decision as to whether you
would kill a man in a chute until he is right in front of you.. When you are
actually there and see the man, then we'll see. It isn't easy to kill a man in
cold blood.

Just reflecting on the many talks over a cold brew I've had with my
Dad (who, as you know, was a warrior). It wasn't the airplane he was
after, it was the SOB_flying_the_plane.

-Mike Marron

"Gord Beaman" ) wrote:
Mike Marron wrote:

Would you shoot the Jerry *******s in their chutes?

-Mike (I damn sure would've) Marron

I'm sure that the Allies thought that that idea was very
counterproductive because of the 'tit for tat' syndrome.

There'd be many more Allied 'chutists' than German chutists so
it's not a great habit to promote.

-Gord (I damned sure wouldn't) Beaman

Haven't you heard all the stories of the Luftwaffe strafing downed
allied pilots coming down their chutes or seen those old, grainy
B&W clips of allied forces being slaughtered in their chutes by the
Germans?

-Mike Marron

Mike Marron wrote:


Haven't you heard all the stories of the Luftwaffe strafing downed
allied pilots coming down their chutes or seen those old, grainy
B&W clips of allied forces being slaughtered in their chutes by the
Germans?

-Mike Marron


Of course but ISTR that it was looked upon as a bad thing to do
(of course) and was discouraged heavily for the reason that I
mentioned. I could of course be wrong, not having BT&DT.

Perhaps Art could give us his impressions?. What did they tell
you Art?.
--

-Gord.

Mike Marron wrote:

(ArtKramr) wrote:
Mike Marron wrote:

Would you shoot the Jerry *******s in their chutes?

-Mike (I damn sure would've) Marron

No Mike, I don't think; I would. I have strafed and when I saw woman or
children I lifted my thumbs off the triggers. See "Strafing as if in a dream".
on my website. But I don't think you can make that decision as to whether you
would kill a man in a chute until he is right in front of you.. When you are
actually there and see the man, then we'll see. It isn't easy to kill a man in
cold blood.

Just reflecting on the many talks over a cold brew I've had with my
Dad (who, as you know, was a warrior). It wasn't the airplane he was
after, it was the SOB_flying_the_plane.

-Mike Marron

You've apparently never heard the admonition "Get him on the rise
sir, get him on the rise", right?
--

-Gord.

"Mike Marron" wrote in message
"Gord Beaman" (wrote:
Mike Marron wrote:

Would you shoot the Jerry *******s in their chutes?

-Mike (I damn sure would've) Marron

I'm sure that the Allies thought that that idea was very
counterproductive because of the 'tit for tat' syndrome.
Haven't you heard all the stories of the Luftwaffe strafing downed
allied pilots coming down their chutes
-Mike Marron

That;s all they were- "stories" or fairy tales!

We never tried to shoot down Crew Members in their chutes!

You are thinking of the Japanese.

Erik