They dress very carefully, for an exposed place
or a disconnected suit can cause a bad frostbite at 30,000 feet. It is
dreadfully cold up there.
It is daylight now and a cold wind is blowing.
The men go back to the armament room and pick up their guns. A truck is waiting
for them. They stow the guns carefully on the floor and then stiffly hoist
themselves in. The truck drives away along the deserted runway. It moves into a
side runway. Now you can see the ships set here and there on the field. A
little group of men is collected under the wings of each one.
“There she is,” the ball-turret man says. “I
wonder if they got her nose repaired.” It was the Mary Ruth that got her
nose smashed by cartridge cases from a ship ahead. The truck draws up right
under the nose of the great ship. The crew piles out and each man lifts his gun
down tenderly. They go into the ship. The guns must be mounted and carefully
tested. Ammunition must be checked and the guns loaded. It all takes time.
That’s why the men were awakened so long before the take-off time. A thousand
things must be set before the take-off.
THE GROUND CREW
BOMBER STATION IN ENGLAND, July 2, 1493—The
ground crew is still working over the Mary Ruth. Master Sergeant Pierce,
of Oregon, is the crew chief. He has been long in the Army and he knows his
engines. They say of him that he owns the Mary Ruth but he lends her to
the skipper occasionally. If he says a flight is off, it is off. He has been
checking the engines a good part of the night.
Corporal Harold is there, too. He has been
loading bombs and seeing that the armament of the ship is in condition. The
ground crew scurry about like rabbits. Their time is getting short. They have
the obscure job, the job without glory and without publicity, and the ships
could not fly without them. They are dressed in coveralls and baseball caps.
The gunners have mounted their guns by now and
are testing the slides. A ground man is polishing the newly mended nose,
rubbing every bit of dirt from it, so that the bombardier may have a good sight
of his target.
A jeep drives up, carrying the officers—Brown,
Quenin, Bliley, and Feerick. They spill a number of little square packets on
the ground, one for each man. Captain Brown distributes them. They contain
money of the countries near the target, concentrated food, and maps. Brown
says, “Now, if we should get into any trouble don’t go in the direction of——because
the people haven’t been very friendly there. Go toward——you’ll find plenty of help
there.” The men take the packets and slip them in pockets below the knees in
their coveralls.
