Interview with Aphrodite Crew Chief, Emerson Smith
It was really exciting to find Crew Chief Emerson Smith interviewed here on Youtube about his experiences in the 8th Airforce. Those experiences included being ground crew on Operation Aphrodite at Fersfield.
Coming over to UK in a converted freighter, sleeping on deck for 11 nights due to hot conditions below decks, he arrived in Liverpool and then moved into Framlingham. He talks about going on practice missions in B-17s, working nights to fix bombers, and then going on detachment. He describes moving at short notice to Fersfield by B-17, after a German plane landed amidst preparations for Aphrodite at that point taking place at Woodbridge.
For the operations, he supervised the loading of the PBY for Joe Kennedy and Bud Willie’s missions. He goes on to speak about how much secrecy there was on the operation.
As he notes on the video, Ground Crew can be overlooked. I’m really happy to find this video for that reason too.