Hi all, probably an easy question for you experts out there:
In 1940, did the Luftwaffe bomber pilots fly with oxygen masks on their sorties over England?
In the past I’ve been on the lookout for a mask to go with my Luftwaffe summer flying helmet display (the helmet was allegedly taken from a downed Heinkel pilot around Guildford in 1940), but I was watching a sky+’ed documentary on the Battle of Britain last night had quite a few original clips of German on board footage showing crew with just helmets & goggles.
Obviously there is no way of knowing for sure when the footage was taken & I’m guessing any propaganda shots were mostly done in safety & would try and show the good looking faces of their heroic pilots etc , but it got me thinking perhaps if they didn’t fly high enough to need the oxygen then perhaps they didn’t use the mask (with comms being taken care of via the throat mic)
Any thoughts?
By: Arabella-Cox - 18th January 2011 at 12:37
Yes, they always flew with them.
But you have answered your own question about whether they always wore them; depends on the altitude of the operation being flown. As you say, comms were via a throat mic so no need to wear the oxy mask, or have it front of your mouth, to send messages.
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January 18, 2011 at 12:21 pm