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Originally Posted by Adriano Baumgartner
I have read a lot of "war diaries", but never read either a RAF or a USAAF airman telling that he used his spare time to make sports. Rather, they used their spare time to visit girlfriends and family.
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This is a little bit anecdotal. I've been reading many of the USAAF 15th Air Force unit histories and war diaries, many include scores of softball or basketball games. Sometimes for a given day more words are devoted to how the softball team fared than to combat operations. How much aircrew were involved is difficult to tell.
Re combat fatigue, I don't have a reference for this (just from the recollections of one bomber crewman), again for the 15th Air Force in the spring of 1944, crew men were given an extended leave about half way through their 50 missions or earlier if the flight surgeon decided they needed a break.
Steve