Armor for Airmen

The U.S. Eighth Air Force in England is calling for an anachronism. Its bomber crews want body armor. Reason: it has been proved by battle test that mail shirts and steel helmets save air crews' lives.

The test was set up by Colonel Malcolm C. Grow, flight surgeon who concluded months ago that many a wound from ack-ack splinters and nearly spent bullets could be prevented by light steel on head and body.

An English sword maker agreed to make the mail. In World War I he had developed a suit of light strips of flexible steel, held together and covered by canvas. Before designing the airman's armor, movements of a bomber crew at 20,000 feet were studied. The suit was designed for complete freedom of action, can be shed fast for a quick bailout.

For three months crews of ten Fortresses (100 men) wore the armor, plus regulation steel helmets, on regular missions over Europe. Grow's figures showed that at least nine owed their lives to it; many more were saved from serious wounds. One man survived a 20-mm. shel' which exploded two feet from his head.

Such results gave bomber crews grounds for hope that body armor might soon be standard. They also made Flight Surgeon Grow an airman's hero. Said he: ". . . If was better to do something about it now instead of reading papers about it to medical societies after the war."

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