media-418507.jpg FRE 9000 Staff-Sergeant Lawrence Smith of the 491st Bomb Group works on a B-17 Flying Fortress at an 8th Air Force rehabilitation centre. Printed caption on reverse: 'US AIRMEN REGAIN HEALTH AND SKILL AT REHABILITATION CENTRES Wounded airmen of the Eighth US Air Force- the men who fly the B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators- are helped back to complete health and strength at US Army Medical Corps rehabilitation centres in England. The men have already received full medical and surgical care in hospitals but must regain the dexterity wand vigour required to return to duty. Special devices which restore the vitality and suppleness in limbs weakened by wounds and inertia are among the feautres of those centers, which are returning hundreds of men to combat. A flight engineer of a B-24 Liberator bomber of the Eighth US Air Force learns the workings of the de-icing system of a B-17 Flying Fortress while recuperating at a rehabilitation center. He is Staff Sergeant Lawrence Smith of Long Island, New York. He was injured in parachuting to safety from his plane after a bombing mission to Luxembourg and still wears a cast on his leg. USSTAF.' Roger Freeman Collection

IWM, Roger Freeman Collection