Info on Crew chiefs/repair men for bombers during WWII

[thegreattailz]

Hey guys,

I am looking for information on a crew cheifs duties. My grandfather was a crew cheif on the b-24 bomber and was listed as a mechanic. However, the question is did crew cheifs ever fly in the planes they maintained or do any shooting? I think I asked my grandpa once when he was alive, and he just said he did mechanic stuff. But maybe thats was just because im the grandson, but if you asked many people if they killed anyone in those early days you wouldnt get much of an answer. Not even the children would ask in those days and the wives wouldnt even try. They just didn't talk about those kinds of things. So all I know of my grandpa is he was a mechanic and crew cheif based in Italy in the airforce. But Id like to know if he ever really got into some of the battles and in effect shot back. Any help on the crew cheifs roles as a mechanic would be helpful. Thanks guys. BTW Im 40 years old

 

[Robert Porter]

Not sure about during WW2 other than Operation Trolley when 1000's of ground crew and support staff were flown over Germany in photo recon flights. When I was in, depending on the type of course, some crew chiefs and ground crew were invited for flights. That would have been 1978 - 1984

 

[Airframes]

A crew chief would not normally fly on operations, as he was in charge of the ground crew assigned to a particular aircraft.
It is possible, however, that he may get to fly in 'his' aircraft, on a flight test, if the pilot and / or flight engineer needed to show him something that needed attention, that they could not positively identify the fault of, if that makes sense.

 

[Robert Porter]

Indeed, very often crew chiefs or regular mechanics would accompany crew on test flights. In Vietnam in some cases mechanics actually flew as door gunners on some choppers. But other than that most ground crew were not taken on combat missions. I had forgotten about test flights.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Not sure about during WW2 other than Operation Trolley when 1000's of ground crew and support staff were flown over Germany in photo recon flights. When I was in, depending on the type of course, some crew chiefs and ground crew were invited for flights. That would have been 1978 - 1984

Depends on the branch of service I guess. In the Army, a mechanic not on flight status is a mechanic. He/She was not a Crew Chief.

A "Non Rated Crew Member" mechanic is a Crew Chief, and a Crew Chief is on flight status and flies with the aircraft.

I for instance was a Blackhawk Crew Chief. When the acft was not flying I maintained it. When the aircraft flew, I was sitting in the right door gunners seat, and was responsible for the passengers, clearing the aircraft, obstacle avoidance and the right machine gun.

Of course that was Army, and obviously post WW2.... Can't speak for the other services.

 

[Robert Porter]

The Air Force, post war, had enlisted crew in choppers. We normally drove to our deployed posts in the missile fields but if weather became an issue or a medical emergency or other security issue arose we could and would be flown into the field. Those times I was flown, there was always one enlisted crewman at the door. Don't know what he did when he was not flying but in the air he made sure we were properly belted and stowed and handled the door etc.

Now when I was providing flight line security to Buff's there were some enlisted crew on those, but their jobs were strictly related to their roles on the aircraft, same with the tanker crews. Gradually enlisted were replaced with officers on the bomber crews. For nuclear armed bombers we performed wing tip to wing tip security as well as enforced the no lone zone policies. Most of the aircrew avoided us as if we had something catchy. In very rare cases, such as a general alert and launch it was not unheard of for us to have to climb aboard and ride as supernumeraries as the bombers began rolling. Never happened to me, but we were trained on how and when and where to enter the aircraft.

 

[soulezoo]

I was a Flying Crew Chief (FCC) on C-141's and KC-10's. Typically, with 141's we only flew if the aircraft was going to destinations that did not have enroute support for that airframe. For example, if a 141 was going from Dover to Ramstein, then no FCC needed. If going from Travis to Wake Island, then one would accompany. On KC-10's there are only two bases that have that airframe so we always flew with a minimum of 2 maintenance personnel and up to 4 dependent on the mission and aircraft configuration. 3 personnel was most common as many ground tasks required 3 personnel per the TO (refueling for instance). We flew under the status of MEGP (Mission Essential Ground Personnel) and did not have "flight status" per se although we were flight crew in every sense of the term. I finished my career with over 10,000 hours of flight time in 26 years.

Now particular to the duties, a Crew Chief would have knowledge of all acft systems, but generally not mastered on more than one or two. Jack of all trades so to speak. A CC would perform all routine maintenance and be involved with all other maintenance to include the direction of specialists, requests for additional maintenance personnel if hard broke somewhere, the keeping of aircraft forms and relaying maintenance status and need up to chain of command (up to major command HQ.)

As far as WWII specifically, I cannot say.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

AFAIK, during WW2, the crew chief would be responsible for the maintenance of his assigned aircraft if we're talking bombers. In some theaters it seems that the crew chief would sometimes be part of the flight crew and may also double as the flight engineer. I met several B-17 crew members who were F/Es, their aircraft's crew chief and would also go into the top turret during combat. I think this varied between operational theater.

 

[Airframes]

Seems to have varied Joe.
For example, on the B-17 with the 8th and 15th USAAF, the Flight Engineer was, as you mentioned, also the top turret gunner, and the B-24 had the same arrangement in the main.
Crew Chief for these aircraft, in those outfits, was the 'boss' of the ground crew for the assigned bomber.
With fighter units in the 8th, again the Crew Chief was a ground role, although he would have authority to taxi the aircraft.
Can't speak for other theaters though.