MEMPHIS BELLE CREW PHOTOS

[Grant]

Hey Carl, here's another photo of the rare A-2 cap being worn by a 303rd BG Hell's Angels ground crew. Dig the pin-up art on the wheel cover!

 

[Silver Surfer]

round, and round, and round she goes

 

[Carl]

Hey Carl, here's another photo of the rare A-2 cap being worn by a 303rd BG Hell's Angels ground crew. Dig the pin-up art on the wheel cover!

View attachment 13778

Hey Grant !! Nice one indeed ! Any date to the pic at all ??

 

[Micawber]

Just caught up with this thread. The guy in the cap is Joe Giambrone who was crew chief for Memphis Belle & others. I

have a number of photos of him in that cap

 

[Micawber]

Joe Giambrone (Gambrone). Memphis Belle Crew Chief. 324th BS 91st BG H Bassingbourn. The original control tower can be seen behind the aircraft as can one of the standard C Type hangars. The doors to that hangar were removed and filled in back in the '90's as part of the conversion of the building into a large gymnasium for the British Army who have occupied the base for many years.

Edited to add close-up as I found I had a clearer version of the original photo.

 

[Micawber]

I probably have more but you get the idea.

 

[Grant]

So cool, thanks Steve for the added pics.

Hey Grant !! Nice one indeed ! Any date to the pic at all ??

January, 1943

 

[Carl]

Thanks Grant !

 

[Carl]

Just caught up with this thread. The guy in the cap is Joe Giambrone who was crew chief for Memphis Belle & others. IView attachment 13806 have a number of photos of him in that cap

Notice the footwear , no roughouts that i can see .

 

[foster]

Notice the footwear , no roughouts that i can see .

I have been told the roughouts were not preferred, due to the aircraft fluids that could more easily soak into the rough leather.

 

[Carl]

I have been told the roughouts were not preferred, due to the aircraft fluids that could more easily soak into the rough leather.

This subject got into a very heated debate over on my FB group !!

 

[B-Man2]

This subject got into a very heated debate over on my FB group !!

Carl
Be interesting to know what the opposing view points were. Care to share?

 

[Carl]

Carl
Be interesting to know what the opposing view points were. Care to share?

Basically it became a slanging match in the end Burt ! And i closed the thread down !
It was basically , from one guy who is an ex ground crew USAF who has interviewed alot of vets , and who also re enacts ground crew . And catergorically
states that Roughouts were not worn . Then the other guy , another re enactor who showed pics of groundcrew wearing them !! It was a real" tit for tat" show !!

 

[Edward]

Just caught up with this thread. The guy in the cap is Joe Giambrone who was crew chief for Memphis Belle & others. IView attachment 13806 have a number of photos of him in that cap

Notice the footwear , no roughouts that i can see .

Mmmmmmmmm notice the coffee mugs! You know I like them mugs Carl!

 

[Micawber]

Life is too short for BS like that. Sadly vet ranks are dwindling but there are umpteen thousand photos to run through which usually confirm that variety was, and still is, the spice of life.

 

[B-Man2]

Basically it became a slanging match in the end Burt ! And i closed the thread down !
It was basically , from one guy who is an ex ground crew USAF who has interviewed alot of vets , and who also re enacts ground crew . And catergorically
states that Roughouts were not worn . Then the other guy , another re enactor who showed pics of groundcrew wearing them !! It was a real" tit for tat" show !!

I would imagine that it got heated. but the realty back then was probably as basic as ; you wore whatever you had at the time.
Thanks for sharing Carl

 

[unclegrumpy]

It was basically , from one guy who is an ex ground crew USAF who has interviewed a lot of vets , and who also re enacts ground crew . And
categorically states that Roughouts were not worn . Then the other guy , another re enactor who showed pics of groundcrew wearing them !! It was a real" tit for tat" show !!

B-man2 is exactly right...they wore what they had. Another thing is they typically did not wear roughouts like they do today...meaning they did not leave them rough and untreated. They smeared coats of dubbing on them, and then sometimes buffed and polished them. The stories I used to hear from vets was how they spent their slack time burning the "rough" off their new boots with lighters...to get them better prepped for polishing. Boots that were worked over would be very hard to spot in photos.

 

[Micawber]