[PEN-L:1218] Death in the air in WW2

[valis <valis@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael P answering Bill Lear:
> > Dropping bombs on civilians from 25,000 feet is courage?
>
> Actually, the airman had one of the highest mortality rates in the war.
> So, if you grant the reasonableness of the war ...

I recall reading that combat deaths in the air on all sides exceeded
a quarter-million (which gives some idea of that war's astounding scale).
It's also worth remembering that most of those planes were hurriedly
mass-produced tin cans that flew: heating, pressurization and sound-
insulation were limited to what designers could pack into the flight
suits, so these were extremely unhealthy environments quite aside from
the killing tension of approaching and leaving target areas.

Incidentally, is anyone interested in this new Anglo-French move to
provide the core of an EU army, and whether Germany will play me-too?
All my impressions in Germany suggested that the Germans, as a society,
anyway, have had their fill of war as an instrument of national will.
That may sound naive to some, but either we subscribe to the possibility
of social evolution or we don't.
                                                                  valis