Punkawallah
Cliff, As you well know, the Punkawallah was the poor man who used to sit or lie with a cord attached to one of his big toes , the other end to a large sheet of some sort of material, possibly bamboo, and pull on it so that it would sweep to and fro thus setting up a hopeful cooling breeze . More probably just moving the warm air around.!
No problem with the petrol from the DC3.. The Petrolwallah used to do it for me.
I have no idea on the life of an air gunner. Sounds very much on the low side to me. I forgot to mention that the Punkawallah was called that ,as that was what a fan was in Hindi or Urdu, a "Punka". Also, if it was after September 1943, it was possibly H2S. I finished my Ops at the end of Jan. 44 and had never used ,or had H2S on board but I am sure that the Lancs got it before the Hallybags.
P.S. My Welsh Navigator, Phil, used the astrodome as he always took shots when he could. Could match you with the cosmopolitan crew, Cliff, Bomb Aimer,Jackie, Epsom, Me ,Lancashire, F/E, Bill, Yorkshire,W/Op. Paddy,Belfast, Mid Upper A/G, Roy, Canada and Tail end Charlie, Tommy, Geordie, and all of them the salt of the Earth.
Last edited by regle; 20th Apr 2009 at 21:49.