Lancaster bomber veterans reunite on Remembrance Day in Hamilton
7 Lancaster veterans had been expected for Tuesday's events, but 12 were there
The cockpit seemed smaller than he remembered when 91-year-old Royal Canadian Air Force pilot Andy Carswell stepped into a Lancaster bomber on Tuesday morning.
The step inside the plane, housed in Hamilton's Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, brought back a harrowing story for Carswell. The Lancaster was a workhorse plane for Bomber Command in the Second World War.
"Last time I bailed out of one at 20,000 feet, it was on fire," he said.
Carswell's plane was shot down near Berlin in early 1943. Two out of seven in Carswell's crew died then — one whose parachute didn't open, and the other they lost in the woods. He spent more than two years in a PoW camp, escaping twice — and being recaptured twice. In 1949, he rejoined the Air Force and flew as a pilot until 1970.
Hamilton's Lancaster bomber comes home
Bomber Command, a crucial piece in Allied victories in the Second World War, had the highest casualty rate in the war. Four out of every 10 crew members didn't return home.
This fact made a reunion on Tuesday at a Remembrance Day ceremony all the more remarkable.
Twelve veteran Air Force members who flew in Lancaster planes in the Second World War were at the museum for its Remembrance Day proceedings.
They're all in their late 80s, early 90s.
They all know someone who didn't come home to have the life, careers and grandchildren many of them did have.
It could be one of the last times such a reunion is possible.
"This opportunity's not going to lend itself for very much longer," said Ed Mizzi, one of the reunion organizers.
A 'powerful personal dimension'
The veterans' reunion was one focus of the Remembrance Day ceremony on Tuesday at the museum, which also featured music, prayers and accounts of the sacrifices Canadian military forces have made over the last century. The museum is the home of Canada's Lancaster — one of two airworthy examples of the bomber in the world.
"It's a big deal for him," Roger Boyce said.
Lancaster crews stayed together as a unit, so when Boyce's pilot couldn't fly due to illness, another crew took Boyce's plane. That replacement crew died while on the mission. The event brought a "powerful personal dimension" to the grief for the lost crew, Boyce said.
On Tuesday, Boyce was largely quiet, absorbing the events and stories of his fellow crewmen. The plane looked bigger than he remembered, he said.
He relished the chance to see the plane and meet some of his fellow veterans on Remembrance Day.
"It moved me," he said.