Not sure if this comes under the Original Irvin thread or not, but one of my colleagues kindly brought in his father's old WWII flight gloves for me to have a look (and try on).
Given the back story to them, it's amazing they're still in one piece, but even after all these years, the fleece lining and stitching is in remarkable condition, and with a bit of a repairing and renovation, they'd make be good to go. Pics first, then a bit of background:
The final pic shows an interesting feature: each glove has a small pocket with a snapable closure built into the interior.
These belonged to Duncan Miller, from Newtonmore in the Scottish Highlands, who passed away sadly earlier this year at the age of 89.
He had joined Bomber Command as a 19-year-old, with the hope of being pilot but remustered and trained as a bomb aimer.
He served in both 77 Squadron and 35 Squadron and flew on about 21 missions before being blown out of the sky in August, 1943.
Here's his recollection of that incident: "We were on 35 Squadron Pathfinder. We didn't drop bombs but we dropped target indicators, which were flares.
"The night we were shot down was over Berlin. We were attacked by a German night-fighter and set on fire. Three members of the crew got out and three were killed. I was the last to get out.
"I'm not trying to be over- dramatic, but the plane was going down in flames and at 12,000ft the target indicators we were carrying exploded and I was blown out of the aircraft. I can't explain how I got out. I was unconscious and woke four or five hours later in a field outside Berlin with my parachute strewn out behind me."
According to his son, the airman's Irvin remains buried somewhere out on the outskirts of Berlin somewhere!
Mr Miller, who was badly injured, became a prisoner of war but was repatriated to Britain in the summer of 1944.
Given the back story to them, it's amazing they're still in one piece, but even after all these years, the fleece lining and stitching is in remarkable condition, and with a bit of a repairing and renovation, they'd make be good to go. Pics first, then a bit of background:
The final pic shows an interesting feature: each glove has a small pocket with a snapable closure built into the interior.
These belonged to Duncan Miller, from Newtonmore in the Scottish Highlands, who passed away sadly earlier this year at the age of 89.
He had joined Bomber Command as a 19-year-old, with the hope of being pilot but remustered and trained as a bomb aimer.
He served in both 77 Squadron and 35 Squadron and flew on about 21 missions before being blown out of the sky in August, 1943.
Here's his recollection of that incident: "We were on 35 Squadron Pathfinder. We didn't drop bombs but we dropped target indicators, which were flares.
"The night we were shot down was over Berlin. We were attacked by a German night-fighter and set on fire. Three members of the crew got out and three were killed. I was the last to get out.
"I'm not trying to be over- dramatic, but the plane was going down in flames and at 12,000ft the target indicators we were carrying exploded and I was blown out of the aircraft. I can't explain how I got out. I was unconscious and woke four or five hours later in a field outside Berlin with my parachute strewn out behind me."
According to his son, the airman's Irvin remains buried somewhere out on the outskirts of Berlin somewhere!
Mr Miller, who was badly injured, became a prisoner of war but was repatriated to Britain in the summer of 1944.
Last edited:
