The most unappreciated airmen of World War Two.

[pattle]

In Britain we often hear of Bomber Command crewmen being the forgotten heroes of World War Two with Fighter Command taking all the recognition and credit. While I agree that Bomber Command was not given the recognition and credit it deserved I believe this statement to be only partly true as the brave airmen of Bomber Command were only forgotten in the minds of some and I suspect that anyone who reads this forum would like myself have of been aware of the great courage and sacrifices made by the RAF's bomber crews during World War Two from a very early age.
Looking at America the impression I get is that appreciation seems to be more equally divided between fighter and bomber crews with possibly even the bomber crews being the most respected of the two.
I think in the minds of at least the British, bombers exist as Lancasters and Mosquitos while fighters exist as Spitfires and Hurricanes, often very little mention is made of other types of fighters and bombers some of which have largely been forgotten about by the general public along with the sacrifices made by the crews who flew these often outdated or ill suited aircraft.
Outside of the stereotypical duties of bombing and dogfighting both fighters and bombers were adapted into other uses and used by different branches of air forces along with other types of aircraft which we seldom hear about.
Putting bombers and fighters to one side for a moment, how many people think of the dangers faced by the crews of unglamorous transport or long range weather patrol aircraft. I wonder who are the most forgotten airmen and least appreciated of World War Two

 

[Alex .]

I'd say for us Britss the Air Transport Auxiliary are up there amongst the most forgotten airmen (women, too)

"During the war, the service flew 415,000 hours and delivered over 308,000[4] aircraft of 130 types including Spitfires, Hawker Hurricanes, Mosquitoes, Mustangs, Lancasters, Halifaxes, Fairey Swordfish, Fairey Barracudas, and Fortresses. The average aircraft strength of the ATA training schools was 78. Total of 133,247 hours were flown by school aircraft and 6,013 conversion courses were put through. The total flying hours of the Air Movement Flight was 17,059 of which 8,570 were on UK internal flights and 8,489 on overseas flights. 883 tons of freight was carried and 3,430 passengers transported without casualty. Total taxi hours amounted to 179,325 excluding Air Movements."

 

[michaelmaltby]

Imagine flying and landing a Lysander into some clearing in occupied France in the dark of night .....

 

[meatloaf109]

The WAC's.
Those women tested new aircraft, flew them to the front, and never received any recognition.

 

[buffnut453]

I'd rather do that than fly a Fairey Battle against a bridge target in France.

Anyone who served in the Far East can also, at least from the Brit perspective, be considered unappreciated.

 

[model299]

Except for hard core aviation history folks like us, hardly anyone knows about the tranport crews that flew The Hump in the Pacific theater.

 

[gumbyk]

Imagine flying and landing a Lysander into some clearing in occupied France in the dark of night .....

+1 for that.

 

[nuuumannn]

One group of individuals that you read very little about on any side during the war are the aircraft maintenance personnel. These guys worked continuously day and night on their aircraft, sometimes under fire and bombing attack, in primitive conditions, in extremes of temperature, in some cases, like in the Pacific with the ever present annoyance of mosquitoes and other wildlife to make things awkward for them, and all this often with the barest of necessities to get their vitally important job done. Servicing aircraft is not the most glamorous job, but it needs to be done and we always read of accounts of the pilots, navigators, gunners etc, but never of what the engineers at front line airfields went through.

 

[GrauGeist]

Another overlooked air service are the pilots and crews of the seaplanes. Tasked with sub-spotting, recon missions and searching for downed aviators or sinking victims, these crews often flew for long hours over endless waters and on several occasions, disappeared without a trace.

 

[Marcel]

Dutch LM pilots, fought for 5 days very hard, outnumbered 1 to 20 and outgunned, even in a 1 on 1 situation and in obsolete aircraft, they fought hard untill the scarce material ran out. Special mention to the little Fokker C.X and C.V biplanes who kept being a nuicance to the Germans, untill they were forced to surrender by the highcommand. Many of the flyers went into the resistance or fled to the UK to fight another day. Largely forgotten here and almost unknown to the outside world.

 

[gumbyk]

One group of individuals that you read very little about on any side during the war are the aircraft maintenance personnel. These guys worked continuously day and night on their aircraft, sometimes under fire and bombing attack, in primitive conditions, in extremes of temperature, in some cases, like in the Pacific with the ever present annoyance of mosquitoes and other wildlife to make things awkward for them, and all this often with the barest of necessities to get their vitally important job done. Servicing aircraft is not the most glamorous job, but it needs to be done and we always read of accounts of the pilots, navigators, gunners etc, but never of what the engineers at front line airfields went through.

Spoken like a true engineer!

 

[nuuumannn]

Spoken like a true engineer!

Underpaid, underappreciated and overworked!

 

[Aozora]

We don't hear much about the BOAC crews who kept up a constant service between Britain and Sweden...

The WAC's.
Those women tested new aircraft, flew them to the front, and never received any recognition.

Are you thinking of the ATA - Air Transport Auxiliary? Agreed 100% - The ATA, btw was a civilian organisation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transport_Auxiliary

 

[silence]

Transport pilots, especially the ones that carried paras through hell to Normandy and the LW men who were flying supplies into the Stalingrad Kessel.

 

[stona]

The glider pilots for me. I wouldn't want to "fly" one of those overloaded beasts into hostile air space and land on a defended landing zone. I wouldn't want to fly one, period!
The motto of the British glider pilot regiment sums it up. "Nihil Impossibilis Est ", nothing is impossible. The same goes for their US counter parts.
The British pilots were expected to fight too. They were counted amongst the "fighting soldiers" on board the glider.

Jim Wallwork, one of the first Horsa pilots to land at Pegasus Bridge passed away early this year aged 93. I would argue that landing those gliders so close to their objective was one of the outstanding feats of airmanship of WWII.

Cheers

Steve

 

[swampyankee]

The glider pilots for me. I wouldn't want to "fly" one of those overloaded beasts into hostile air space and land on a defended landing zone. I wouldn't want to fly one, period!
The motto of the British glider pilot regiment sums it up. "Nihil Impossibilis Est ", nothing is impossible. The same goes for their US counter parts.
The British pilots were expected to fight too. They were counted amongst the "fighting soldiers" on board the glider.

Jim Wallwork, one of the first Horsa pilots to land at Pegasus Bridge passed away early this year aged 93. I would argue that landing those gliders so close to their objective was one of the outstanding feats of airmanship of WWII.

Cheers

Steve

My father told me that when he volunteered in 1942, the army tried to get him to join up as a glider pilot. He said a firm "no thank you," with the reasoning that "landing" a glider in enemy territory seemed only slightly less nuts than jumping out of a perfectly good airplane into enemy territory.

 

[nuuumannn]

I'd hate to be the guy who had to operate this...

 

[pattle]

How about the RASC Air Despatchers that served with the RAF during World War Two. RASC air despatchers were responsible for the packing, loading and despatching of supplies from RAF aircraft over high risk combat areas such as Burma and Arnhem. I believe that during Market Garden the Short Stirlings resupplying the Paratroopers carried four RASC air despatchers and that these air despatchers suffered amongst the highest casualty rates, yet few people are even aware of their existence.

 

[Vassili Zaitzev]

Another overlooked air service are the pilots and crews of the seaplanes. Tasked with sub-spotting, recon missions and searching for downed aviators or sinking victims, these crews often flew for long hours over endless waters and on several occasions, disappeared without a trace.

I'd recommend the crews and pilots of Patrol Wing 10. Attached to the US Asiatic Fleet, they did all that and more, flying bombing missions with PBYs(lack of suitable replacements put them in that role). A lot of guys didn't live to February 1942. Some incredible feats of survival too, stuff that puts Hollywood to shame.

 

[parsifal]

The training commands. These were the people and the organizations that won the war in the air. It includes EATS but is not limited to them