The Little World

That catch phrase from the classic of Canadian culture – the Red Green Show – certainly applies to most of the German bombers I’ve seen – and particularly to the Dornier 17Z.

The crew was large enough; a pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier, gunner, and party political officer. There were only 5 seats for 6 crew members but they played the ” Horst Wessel Lied ” as a game of musical chairs and if someone got killed by a Hurricane or Spitfire there were seats for everyone. This is imaginative management of human resources.

I am impressed with the fact that the seats are all on stalks and they all fit. A spritz with whatever grey you fancy – as long as it is not the correct grey according to the club anorak – and you are ready to detail and wash the cockpit. No isolated crew positions. Everyone in the front and everyone going down with the ship together. About as much chance of defending the thing with the machine guns as the British had with their Hampdens…ie, none.

No wonder the Luftwaffe pilots that hove up alongside a B-17 or B-24 for the first time were slightly disconcerted. A .50 as opposed to a .30 or a 7.62 is a much more serious thing and if you are looking down the barrel of three or more it makes the classic quarter attack strategy uncomfortable.