AF047 “The Grease Monkey Set #1”

Four standing ‘Grease Monkeys’ stand around an aircraft inspecting the plane for any exterior damage to either the wings, fuselage, landing gear or engines…
      The term ‘Grease Monkey’ was common American slang for an engineer or a mechanic usually engaged in motor or aircraft repair and maintenance …  It was not regarded as a derogatory term and was widely accepted and used by the relevant engineers and mechanics themselves.

While the most obvious components of the U.S. Air Force in WW2 were the pilots, navigators, bombardiers, engineers and other aircrew who flew the aircraft there were also many hundreds of ground units and organizations to support and supply the men in the air.
            These ground crews were responsible for keeping the aircraft in safe flying condition.  Ground crew members made repairs to aircraft as well as handling routine maintenance such as checking landing gear, refilling fuel tanks, rearming all weaponry on board, examining the wings and fuselage of every aircraft and making any repairs when necessary.
            Ground crews were highly trained in mathematics, mechanics and all kinds of machine shop skills.  Their job was deceptively simple…  “Keep ‘em flying!”
            At the end of WW2 the U.S. Army Air Force possessed almost 64,000 aircraft of all types and sizes including 14,000 heavy bombers such as the B17 ‘Flying Fortress’… the B24 ‘Liberator’… and the mighty B29 ‘Super Fortress’.  Other medium bombers included the B25 ‘Mitchell’… the B26 ‘Marauder’… and the A26 ‘Invader’.
             Add to that over 17,000 fighter aircraft of all descriptions operation out of 1,895 air bases spanning the world and you have a huge multi-faceted force of over 2,000,000 men and some women, the majority of whom never left the ground!
             These latest figures are a welcome addition to our long-running series of U.S. Army Air Force pilots and aircraft and will look particularly at home on any collector’s airfield display or diorama…  Check ‘em out!