[Lang]

Mike

Somewhere I have a study on the mental health aspects of the bomber crews.

The pressure was enormous - more than anything else in WW2 and akin to being in the trenches during WW1.

Complete nervous breakdowns were very common and numbered in their thousands. Early in the war it was still being treated as LMF (low moral fibre or cowardice). They improved their treatment and discharged bad cases as medically unfit or sent crews to training jobs or even ground postings. Most never went back to operations.

The propaganda, spread by the public as well, is that these blokes just gritted their teeth and got on with it with British stiff upper lip. Most of them went through stages. Early terror, a bit of experience resulted in ways to stay "safe" and many ended up totally resigned to death, becoming socially withdrawn with little interest in doing anything other than just going there and back. Mental breakdowns happened at any stage. The great majority got absolutely smashed in the bar nearly every night (remember most of these young fellows would have been very light or non-drinkers before enlisting). Flying with hangovers, or still alcohol affected was almost the norm.

There were huge numbers of failure to take off due to some engine problem that the ground crew could not replicate (an easy way was to do all the warm-up and taxi on one bank of spark plugs. On the pre-take off magneto check the unused bank of plugs would have oiled up and show an excessive rev drop making the engine u/s for flight).

It was difficult for the Americans to fabricate a turn-back because they flew in daylight in close formation but they had a big advantage of the close visual and moral support of their mates. The British flew totally alone at night and hoped they never saw their mates because if they did they would be so close a collision was likely. Nobody flew at their assigned altitude and they just picked a "lucky" height to try to get out of the huge traffic flow and not hit someone.

Thousands of tons of bombs were dropped anywhere from just off the English coast to somewhere near the target. The flash photography was primarily to make sure they did not dump their bombs along the way but it was advertised as a way of checking the accuracy.

Many a crew colluded and flew in circles over the north sea for 5 hours before joining the returning flock. We think of the pilots when discussing these problems but the pilot and the navigator were 100% occupied the whole flight both mentally and physically while the rest of the crew with less continuous duties were just sitting in an aluminium coffin waiting for something to happen with no control over their destiny. No wonder "The Skipper" became God (no matter how bad a pilot he might be) which in turn put more pressure on him.

We should be in awe of those blokes who pushed and pushed until they either mentally or physically collapsed. Their treatment post-war was hopeless and thousands lived out their lives in depression, ruined relationships or just suicided.

We are at last getting a handle on PTSD and see the effects on troops in Afghanistan which is a walk in the park compared to Bomber Command.

Lang