Lancaster pilot
 

Met a Lancaster crewman yesterday at a book signing. Flew 1944 to 1946.
Laurie Woods, DFC
94. Sharp as a tack.

Why do I admire those Bomber Command guys?

Killed in action...........51% (55,573)
Killed in crashes ..........9%
Seriously injured in crashes...3%
Prisoners of War.........12%
Evaders......................1%
Survivors unharmed...24%

All volunteers.

Bomber command casualties even at that latter stage of the war exceeded ground force casualties. And yet every week they climbed back into the Lancasters.
That's courage.

Nice. That's quite an honour. I would have liked to thank him for his service and shake his hand, but I know you did it and that's the next best thing.

The greatest generation.....God speed.....

Watched a few documentaries on Amazon about Lancasters this week. WW2 Bomber Boys of Britain, The Dambusters Raid and WW2 Dambusters Great Escape.

My father was a Lancaster pilot and did two tours of operations. He got the DFC and bar.
He died at age 52 in 1967. He was a heavy smoker. My mother said he was never the same after the war and he never talked about the war. My mother also said he had three aircraft crashes in smaller air force aircraft. He walked away every time.

About ten years ago I met a Mosquito pilot who was a Pathfinder. He was about eighty then and in great shape. Would not be surprised if he was still alive.

My friends dad was a bomb aimer. He completed all of his missions. He didn't talk about it either.
He started talking about the war with his grand kids. He passed away around 5 years ago.

I saw a good documentary last week called Reunion of Giants.
It's about one of two airworthy Lancaster bombers that's in Hamilton Ont. flying to Britain to meet up with the other flying Lancaster bomber in England.

It fly's over my house every other day in the summer!

I think I remember reading an article on BBC.com/news that said that at one point the life expectancy of a Lancaster crew member was 2 weeks.

Amazing similar story is my Uncle...only he was a B-17 Captain. Heavy smoker, never talked about it, died much younger than his brothers did.

This place is about 40 minutes from my house...

Bomber Command Museum of Canada

They have a fully restored Lancaster and they fire up the engines a few times per year. Those things sound awesome.


http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/eventschedule.html

Apparently one whole third of Britains wartime industrial activity was spent on Bomber command. Ewen McGregor and his brother recently made a decent documentary about his brother qualifying in one of the last two flying Lancs. They look so cramped inside it's no wonder nobody could get out of a damaged one. All heroes in my view.

That was WW2 Bomber Boys of Britain.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....X200_QL80_.jpg

I did just that.
And told him that I've made sure my kids also know what they did.

My dad,a tank commander, was wounded at the Falaise Gap and was repatriated to England in a Lancaster.Even in his bad state he was able to recollect how cramped that plane was.Of course the designer was keeping the frontal area as small as possible for aerodynamic reasons.

I did enter a Lancaster about fifteen years ago. I think it was in Vulcan Alberta. The main obstruction to get into the cockpit from the back of the aircraft was the wing root. Had to literally crawl over it so little wonder that exiting was a challenge. Sitting in the cockpit the pilot's view over the wings was like looking over immense barn doors.

That's the wing spar. A mid-wing plane has that issue...

Part of the reason the B-17 had a low wing and the B-24 had a high wing.

B-29 had the same issue, had a pressurized tunnel over the spar to the rear.

You Gentleman have been associated with some amazing people.

As a former military pilot, I find the in-fight formation discipline under extreme duress, staying in your position straight and level while being attacked from all angles beyond the call.

Knowing what is coming, the odds, and then getting in the plane undoubtedly takes a toll.

Mom's cousin was a tail gunner MIA over Holland. They found the plane only about 15 years ago. I don't imagine they found bodies, maybe tags, but they confirmed they had found him.

Mom is a British war bride, she came over to Canada in a converted Lancaster bomber. They had to wear oxygen masks over 20K, lost two engines over the Atlantic and landed in Gander in a blizzard.
Avro Lancastrian is what they called the plane from my research, I believe due to time line it was an actual bomber conversion. Only 10 passangers, rough ride, cold, very noisy, mom said "she couldn't hear herself think". She had to pay to come over this way, waiting for the free ship would have been another 9-12 months.

A friend and fellow 914 owner spent many volunteer hours on the Hamilton Lancaster.

Thanks for the tribute Paul...:)

I have no doubt that Paul and the men who served with him would have answered the Lancaster's call in 1940 if they had been in that time and place. It takes no honor away fromthe men who gave the ultimate sacrifice to recognize that there are men and women in our midst who are of the same mettle as those who went before us. It is a credit to humanity that we continue to produce human being of the caliber that men such as me can only aspire to imitate. We honor them all when we honor those who fell in the service of mankind.