![]() ![]() Manufacturer's name is very faint, but reads "Montague Burton LTD Leeds." Original label inside with arrow dated 1943. (2-xx) Jacket above is called a Jacket, Field enlisted mans ETO. w535 ac 28560 Poughkeepsie Leather Coat Co. Black and Gold label reads: Type A-2 Drawing 30-1415 AC Contract No. ![]() Parachutes 1943-1945 "Little Friends" Fighter Pilot Gear Tuskegee Airmen Dressing for a Mission Introduction / Photo Shoot Flight Gear 1943 Flight Gear 1944-1945 / F-2 Heated Suitįlight Gear 1944-1945 / F-3 Heated Suit Headgear / Oxygen Masks / Boots Flak Vests / Helmets / Misc Photos copyright ©2006-2018 by Ed Nored, used by permission Mission Reports Combat Crews Individual Photos Photos POW KIA MACR Overseas Graves TAPS Personnel Aircraft Nose Art B-17 Thunderbird Ground Support Uniforms Journals More Info An additional 1,130 Canadians were wounded or injured, and 377 became prisoners of war or were interned.Home About Us Contact Us Donate Newsletters 8th AFHS Links FAQ Facebook Search Of 6,166 British Empire air service fatalities, 1,388 were Canadian. The Costīy war’s end, almost a quarter of all British flyers were Canadian. In a period before the widespread introduction of reliable parachutes, few aircrew safely bailed out crash landings in flimsy planes frequently resulted in death or permanent injury. Few pilots survived being wounded in the air or having their aircraft catch on fire. Experienced pilots dove on vulnerable aircraft from great heights, often flying with the sun at their backs to achieve surprise, or maneuvered below to shoot an enemy aircraft to pieces before its crew could react. The life expectancy of new aircrew could be measured in weeks. Inexperienced pilots sometimes flew frontally at one another, and camaraderie among opposing fliers was not unknown, but the air war was a brutal killing ground in which a pilot sought mainly to kill enemy pilots as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Soldiers watched enviously the aerial dogfights above, cheering on their favourites, but there was little chivalry in these contests. Unlike the massive land forces mired in the mud, flyers soared above the battlefield in the spacious skies, often fighting against individual enemy aircraft. These flyers were often depicted as “Knights of the Sky,” despite the hardships and cruelty of aerial warfare. Canadian flyers received at least 495 British decorations for gallantry. Raymond Collishaw was the second leading Canadian with 60, and William G. ![]() William Avery ‘Billy’ Bishop topped the list of Canadians and was second among all Allied aces with 72 kills. There were 171 Canadian air aces during the war, pilots or gunners with five or more enemy aircraft or airships destroyed.
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