Clothing for the Frigid Temperatures

The two turrets, the two gunners had an electrical outlet so we plugged in… you put the uniform on, then you put gloves on and then you put boots on and the boots were plugged into the electrical system and so were the gloves so that when you sat down you plugged your electrical contact in and about 75% of the time it worked. Your gloves stayed warm and your feet stayed warm. Twenty five percent of the time it overheated, you had to take it off or it didn’t work and the nights that it didn’t work that’s when you really…
Now we were pretty warmly dressed and we did have some coffee in a thermos bottle but it was pretty cold. It was pretty cold and of course you are breathing oxygen all the time, you always had the oxygen mask on and I remember the oxygen was cold. Every time you breathed it was cold air that you were breathing in. Your hands are warm, your feet are warm and the rest of you is shivering. Our longest trip was probably eight hours, the average trip was about six hours and once you climbed into the turret you didn’t get out, you stayed in the turret that length of time.