Put The "Uhu" Pilot In Emil And...
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Panther_99FS
- Staff Sergeant
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- Joined: 13 Oct 2004, 01:45
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Panther_99FS
- Staff Sergeant
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- Joined: 13 Oct 2004, 01:45
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alastairmonk
- Airman First Class
- Posts: 65
- Joined: 02 Dec 2005, 18:46
- Location: Uxbridge, UK
I think the early style yellow life jacket is the correct one. I suspect but have no viable proof that the blue life jacket was only used by LW night fighter crew for reduced visibility. The yellow one would be far more visible at night. This is just a quess though.
A small snippet of information on the LW life jackets. A man called Charles Fraser-Smith worked under cover of a temporary civil servant for the Brithish Ministry of Supply's Clothing and Textile Department (Dept. CT6), he supplied equipment and gadgets for secret agents, saboteurs and prisoners-of-war during World War 2. He was asked to make copies of a new type of Luftwaffe life jacket and made a couple of interesting discoveries that were subsequently incorporated as standard in RAF 'Mae Wests'. The first was a small metal cylinder that turned out to be compressed air for inflating the jacket. Up until then many airmen were lost simply because they didn't have the strength to blow up their life jacket. The second discovery was a pouch filled with a mystery powder, who's purpose was only discovered when Fraser-Smith washed his hands. The powder was a powerful fluorescent dye which was used by LW pilots shot down over the sea to dye the surrounding water so they could be spotted easier.
A small snippet of information on the LW life jackets. A man called Charles Fraser-Smith worked under cover of a temporary civil servant for the Brithish Ministry of Supply's Clothing and Textile Department (Dept. CT6), he supplied equipment and gadgets for secret agents, saboteurs and prisoners-of-war during World War 2. He was asked to make copies of a new type of Luftwaffe life jacket and made a couple of interesting discoveries that were subsequently incorporated as standard in RAF 'Mae Wests'. The first was a small metal cylinder that turned out to be compressed air for inflating the jacket. Up until then many airmen were lost simply because they didn't have the strength to blow up their life jacket. The second discovery was a pouch filled with a mystery powder, who's purpose was only discovered when Fraser-Smith washed his hands. The powder was a powerful fluorescent dye which was used by LW pilots shot down over the sea to dye the surrounding water so they could be spotted easier.
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Panther_99FS
- Staff Sergeant
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- Joined: 13 Oct 2004, 01:45
During the BoB (and at least some time later), during day operations, there were basically two types of life west used by German aircrew: The air fielled one and the Kopok filled one. Both were yellow. At least at the beginning of the BoB, the German ASR was much better and so great visibility would be a boon.
Hm, I remember seeing a WWII foto showing one and stenciled on it was "Farbbeutel", literally meaning "colour bag"ICDP wrote: The second discovery was a pouch filled with a mystery powder, who's purpose was only discovered when Fraser-Smith washed his hands. The powder was a powerful fluorescent dye which was used by LW pilots shot down over the sea to dye the surrounding water so they could be spotted easier.
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Panther_99FS
- Staff Sergeant
- Posts: 325
- Joined: 13 Oct 2004, 01:45
Hmmm...I found a color photo of some BoB He-111 crews wearing a brown vest....(not faded either lol)Osram wrote:During the BoB (and at least some time later), during day operations, there were basically two types of life west used by German aircrew: The air fielled one and the Kopok filled one. Both were yellow. At least at the beginning of the BoB, the German ASR was much better and so great visibility would be a boon.
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