Winter weather was brutally difficult for fliers on both sides. After completing high-altitude missions in poorly heated cockpits, American fighter pilots were sometimes so frozen and weak that they had to be pulled from their planes by medical teams. Ice two inches thick built up on the windscreens of fighters and bombers, causing accidents. Fliers also had difficulty relieving themselves. There were only two toilet facilities on a four-engine bomber, a tin can and a “relief tube.” Between the waist compartment and the tail there was a can with a lid on it, but as Jack Novey noted, “when you
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