[Brian Bines]

Willi Heilmann (JG54) in his book 'Alert in the West' claims 200 of the ground staff were taken from the Gruppe and replaced with women . It would be assumed this was late in the war . He also claimed two pilots from another fighter wing were killed because the silk canopies had been removed from their parachutes to make underwear by women ground crew , only seen this in his book .