WW II Military Aircraft Nose Art

[mn9driver]

3. The death rate of allied bomber crews over Europe approached 80 prrcent

...during some parts of the war. The overall KIA rate for the 8th AAF operating out of the UK for the whole war was about 41 percent, with another 20 percent shot down and captured.

The psychology of nose art needs to take into account the fact that these very young men knew the low odds of their survival every time they climbed into those machines. The overtly sexualized women painted there were terrifyingly likely to be the last women they would ever see. It explains why so many of these images combine sex, death and bitterness.

They needed to live through that at least 30 times in order to "complete" a single tour.

It was a different time under unimaginably difficult circumstances.