OT: Color Footage 353rd FG

[Bomber_12th]

Just stumbled on this today - absolutely amazing footage (at least it is to me). Some great views of daily life in England during the war, and the aircraft of the 353rd FG: http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/933

[Greenhouse357]

Thats the type of film I love to watch. Thanks John.

[Bone]

Great film. There certainly wasn't enough color footage from the ETO, that's for sure. One of the pilots putting on his parachute had a G-suit on, at least it sure looks like one. I didn't think they had those during the war. I don't have a time stamp, but he's the pilot standing on the right wing at about a quarter of the way through the video.

[PRB]

It does look like a G suit. Interesting.

[Bomber_12th]

That's correct! I actually have a photo showing a 339th FG Mustang pilot demonstrating plugging in his g-suit within the cockpit. G-suits didn't seem to be introduced until the later months of the war, at which time they did seem to be used quite a lot by Mustang pilots. The portion of film from Raydon looks to be from the spring of '45.

[Smashing Time]

Great stuff John. Interesting to see the FG getting a demonstration of the Royal Navy crash rescue boats that got those boys out of that cold English channel.

[DaveQ]

I'd love to watch this but all I get is 'Sorry this video is unavailable'.

DaveQ

[Bomber_12th]

Yeah, I don't know what's up with the site - there was another video I also tried to watch this morning that I got that same message. Now the website itself won't load for me - hopefully it is just a temporary issue.

Edit: Seems to be working again!

[Bomber_12th]

Lt. Myer Winkleman of the 339th FG hooks up his Berger g-suit into P-51D-5-NA 44-13521 "Marinell". Sadly, Lt. Winkleman was KIA not too long after this photo was taken. Some sites claim that the Berger g-suit wasn't introduced until September of 1944, but this photo was taken in August of '44, thus dispoving those claims. The RAF also had their own early g-suits, used by Hurricane and Spitfire pilots.