At 25,000 feet the enemy that never missed was the cold. A heavy bomber's crew flew in an unpressurized, unheated aircraft where the outside air fell to forty or fifty degrees below zero — cold enough to freeze exposed skin in seconds and jam guns and oxygen lines. A man who pulled off a glove to clear a stoppage could lose his fingers to frostbite before he finished, and for stretches of the air war frostbite put more Eighth Air Force crewmen in the hospital than enemy fire did. The answer was layers of sheepskin, leather and electrically heated cloth — and gear like the B-2 flying cap this airman wears, soft leather worn under the flying helmet to keep a man's head from freezing at the top of the sky.

The airman stands in full flying kit, walking out to his aircraft: a fleece-collared leather flight jacket, the soft B-2 leather cap on his head, a yellow Mae West life vest and parachute harness buckled over the top, flight bag in one hand and his fur-lined flying helmet in the other. He joins the bomber-crew cluster — pose him with the Crewman in Body Armor, the Ball Turret Gunner, and the Heavy Bomber Crewman — a crew gathering on the hardstand at dawn. An airfield diorama of men walking out to a waiting B-17 is one of the most evocative scenes of the whole air war.

W. Britain model 10205. 1/30 scale, matte-painted metal. Single figure — a USAAF heavy bomber crewman in flight gear and B-2 flying cap. Boxed.