Do you think they could literally smell the flak?

[Les]

Interesting read, swore out loud when he said how low he pulled out of that dive.

I have little doubt the flak could be smelled under the right conditions. It just makes sense that if air was getting into your plane, and the flak residue was in the air, there it'd be. If there was enough of it and you flew through it the only reason I can think why you wouldn't smell it is if there was some even stronger smell closer to you. As I imagine there often would have been. Poor buggers.

I too have a vague sense of having read or heard about bomber crews noting the smell of the flak they were flying through, but I can more clearly remember reading about or seeing a video in which a modern day A-10 (?) pilot mentioned the smell from his own guns he was firing on strafing runs. Admittedly those things spew out a lot of fire, but I think it's a good indication that if a pilot of a modern aircraft can smell that, pilots flying through flak barrages could probably smell what was outside in the air as well.

Anyway, thanks for the link to the story, it's not an aspect of the war that one's reminded of very often, especially not from the point of view of someone who was actually there taking part in it.