Kenneth Hess Photo Collection

Kenneth Hess was a ground crew chief with the 748th BS. He and his men were responsible for keeping the planes flying. I think a pilot once said ‘the ground crews were more important then pilots, because without them none of us would be flying’. Most of the ground crews arrived at the end of 1943 and stayed at Glatton until 1945. They worked day and night in heat or extreme cold to repair the planes. They could fix the unfixable and even build a ‘new’ B-17 out of two damaged B-17’s…we know her as Arf n’ Arf.

These photos are from an album found in a house for sale. The person who would the album knew the historical value and then the album found it’s way to mister Zemper. These photos of ground crews are rare and in our archives there are few. We would like to thank all the people who saved this album.

Enjoy this beautiful collection of photos