I went to Canberra last Thursday. (I would have greatly enjoyed throwing rotten eggs at Howard-the-destroyer, but I had more important things to do)…….
How cool is Lake George!!!! I’ve always been fascinated by it. Empty today.
I went with my Dad. My Dad is one of my few heroes. He’s in his eighties. He bodysurfs whenever he can. He does the gardening at my house. He’s always positive, fit and healthy. He’s got the right ideals going on. So I went with him to the War Memorial. He was in WW2, in the 460 Bomber Squadron.
Down at the Canberra War Memorial there is a Lancaster (that’s a plane) that is the same as the ones he used to fly in, and they put on a show involving this plane that (with the use of sound and lighting) gives you a hint of what it would have been like for these young blokes.
The particular strike that is re-inacted involved 500 of these planes (each with 7 men) going on an air-strike over Germany. 50 of the planes were lost that night. My Dad’s whole squadron was in fact wiped out twice over. Lucky for my Dad, he wasn’t the fighting type and avoided the whole thing until the Japanese threatened the security of his own country. He came in on the tail end of the war and only had to go out on 10 missions (a tour was 25), and he was unscathed.
It is difficult to see this picture – damn camera phone is no good at all in the dark and the flash is useless, otherwise I could have included a pic of me and Dad. But, there is a video screen at the back of the plane and it’s highlighting a domed area near the tail. That’s the mid-gunners turret and that’s where my Dad used to have to sit. He wore 5 pairs of gloves and a heated suit, there was no heating in the turret and at 5000ft, it gets pretty cold. He never had to shoot at anyone or anything – I think that’s lucky for my Dad – he had the Buddhist philosophy before it was trendy.
I was very impressed. Dad’s never been terribly forthcoming with information about his past. I learned a lot. We walked past another, smaller plane and he told me that was like the ones he trained in. “Trained as what, Dad?” ,
“Trained as a pilot”
“What??!!”
I never knew that. He wasn’t so great with the landings, apparently. Seems that was the case with a few of the learners. He told me that one day they were all lined up to take off, and one guy was trying to land in a strong wind. He couldn’t get the plane to come around and land against the wind, they were all watching him as he tried. He ended up taking off the whole back half of Dad’s plane. There’s my Dad, sitting in the cockpit, nothing behind him. I guess he was pretty lucky then too.
Anyway.
I adore my Dad.
And I’m so glad I got to learn a little more about him.
He loves nachos and jazz, so i took him to Deans at the Cross on the way home. He told me that he used to go to the Cross a fair bit in the 50’s – when he had a dancer as a girlfriend.
“What????”
She used to do a dance called an Adagio. It was with another girl.
“What????????????”
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