Aircraft pics

[PeteLeathersac]

I'm part way through a book on WW2 Bomber Command, 6 Group specifically and the more I learn, the more I understand how we truly are such the fortunate generation!.

Take the time to thank a Veteran...before it's too late!.


~ Pete

Here's one amazing story some may know already...worth rereading if you do..

Andrew Charles Mynarski was born in Winnipeg, October 14, 1916, the son of Polish immigrants. He was a north-end boy who attended King Edward and Isaac Newton Elementary Schools and St. John's Technical School, but at 16, when his father died, he left school to help support his family. In November 1941, Mynarski enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and trained in Calgary and Edmonton before being posted to No. 3 Bombing and Gunnery School at MacDonald, Manitoba, where he trained as a mid-upper air-gunner, earning his AG Wing in 1942. He was sent overseas in December 1942 and, after training in England, was posted to 419 "Moose" Squadron, a heavy bomber squadron that was part of 6 Group, the Canadian arm of RAF Bomber Command.

Moose Squadron flew out of the RAF station at Middleton St. George, near Darlington in north England. Mynarski was part of a seven-man crew on the Lancaster Bomber A for Able, with pilot Art de Breyne from St. Lambert, Québec, Jack Friday of Port Arthur, Ontario, Jim Kelly of Winnipeg, Bob Bodie of Vancouver, Roy Vigars of Guildfand, England and Flight Lt. Pat Brophy of Port Arthur. A cook at the base, Mrs. Berriman, told the story that when the Canadians returned from missions, the first thing they would ask for was a slice of her lemon meringue pie. Her daughter recalls: "When they flew back in, my mom had to have it ready for them. The Canadians really loved it, much more than the English."

On the night of June 12, 1944 a few days after D-Day, the Lanc and its crew took off on their thirteenth sortie for the railway yard at Cambrai in an attempt to disrupt German supply lines. For bomber crews in World War II life expectancy was measured in months.

In the recollection of Mynarski's friend Pat Brophy in a famous December 1965 Reader's Digest story, "The Thirteenth Mission," Mynarski was "a quiet, chunky fellow with a boyish grin." Brophy, an officer, and Mynarski, an NCO, lived in different quarters but they became fast friends. After missions or evenings on the town the two men had a routine: Brophy would say, "So long Irish"; Mynarski would exaggerate a salute and reply "Good night, sir!" As the friends sat on the grass beside their bomber waiting to take off for France, Mynarski found a four-leaf clover and said "Here, Pat. You take it." It proved to be a prophetic act.

On the way to Cambrai a German JU-88 streaked under the Lancaster and let fly. Explosions rocked the aircraft. At 13 minutes past midnight, June 13, Captain de Breyne gave the signal to bail out. In the tail turret, however, the hydraulic system had been destroyed and Brophy was trapped. Just as Mynarski was about to jump to safety he saw Brophy struggling to get free. On his hands and knees Mynarski crawled to the tail and frantically attempted with an axe and then his bare hands to release his friend. By this time flames were engulfing the aircraft and Brophy screamed, "Go back, Andrew! Get out!"

Reluctantly, Mynarski crawled back to the escape hatch, and standing up in his burning clothes saluted his old friend as he had so many times before. Brophy recalled, "At the same time, just before he jumped, he said something. And though I couldn't hear, I knew it was, 'Good night, sir!'"

Amazingly, as the Lancaster hurtled toward the earth it hit a tree and the blow snapped Brophy's turret open and he was thrown free, unharmed. The French resistance rescued Brophy and three of his companions; two of the surviving crew had been taken prisoner. He later learned that a French farmer had spoken of a parachutist who had landed alive but died of severe burns.

Pilot Officer Andrew Mynarski, age 27, was the first member of the RCAF to be decorated with the Victoria Cross. His example is a testament both to courage and to friendship. Fortitude, endurance, loyalty and bravery are virtues that should inspire us all, but, as Gwynne Dyer writes in War, they are a fundamental necessity in the military. Combat is horrifying and to persevere requires a bond of trust. Sir John Hackett, a well- known British General, makes the point that military action is group action: "The success of armies depends to a high degree on the coherence of the group and the coherence of the group depends on the degree of trust and confidence of its members in each other." Soldiers fight because of loyalty to close friends. Mynarski demonstrated bravery and loyalty of almost superhuman proportions.

Most importantly, he demonstrated these virtues on behalf of a friend. William Bennett in the Book of Virtues writes that, "in the best friendships we see, in perhaps its purest form, a moral paradigm for all human relations." Having friends and being a friend means that you begin by sharing mutual interests and taking pleasure in each other's company. But deeper friendship moves from acquaintanceship and affection to frankness, sharing, and assistance, as Mynarski exemplified, to the point of self-sacrifice.

I think it is this aspect of the Mynarski story that has had such an impact. Brave soldiers must die in war, but this man died trying to save a friend. It is an example that unites generations: near the former base in Middleton the children of the primary schools joined with many others across England and Canada to raise more than 76,000 pounds for a statue to Andrew Mynarski at Durham Tees Valley Airport. The sculptor of the statue visited Mynarski's grave at Meharicourt Cemetery, France, and left a message from the school children: "We will never forget our hero." On June 4, 2005, Colleen Bacon, Pat Brophy's daughter, unveiled the statue as a permanent memorial.

Ralph Waldo Emerson believed that friendships are gifts and expressions from God. That was certainly the view of Pat Brophy. He concluded his 1965 article about Andrew Mynarski with these words: "I'll always believe that a divine providence intervened to save me because of what I had seen – so the world might know of a gallant man who laid down his life for a friend."

[1967 Impala]

Here is a picture of the Andrew Charles Mynarski Lancaster that flys out of the Warplane Hertiage collection. I have seen this plane many times and let me tell you it is outstanding! it is only one of two that fly in the world and it came off of a pedestal in Godderich Ont and put back into flying condition by volunteers [image][/image] The small history on the plane

[SS427]

Do you know if this is the same Lancaster that used to be located at the Anoka County Airport Museum in Minnesota until about 7-10 years ago? I thought that airplane was one of the two remaining as well so it could be the same or the other one.

[ANDY M]

British Lancaster bomber



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This was the Lanc that flew in from Canada last year for the Mustang show. Same plane?

[1967 Impala]

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British Lancaster bomber



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This was the Lanc that flew in from Canada last year for the Mustang show. Same plane?

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Yes it is the same plane,

[1967 Impala]

Here is some history on the Lancaster from Hamilton

The Lancaster, C-GVRA, owned and operated by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (CWH), was one of the 422 Mk X models built at Victory Aircraft in Canada between 1943 and 1945. It saw service with the No. 107 Rescue Unit at Torbay, Newfoundland, as a maritime patrol/search and rescue aircraft until retired by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1964.

Lancasters are powered by four Rolls-Royce or Packard-built Merlin engines and was the only aircraft capable of carrying the 22,000-pound Grand Slam bomb.

Between 1942 and VE Day (May 8, 1945), Lancasters participated in 156,000 sorties and delivered two-thirds of Bomber Command’s total bomb weight. The Lancaster won a place for itself in history with the daring and precise bombing raids on the Mohne and Eder dams in May 1943 and with the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz, in a well-defended Norwegian fjord. Of the 7,366 Lancasters built during World War II, only two are still flying today.

The CWH Lancaster was acquired from the Goderich Legion in 1977, with assistance from the Sully Foundation. Following a lengthy restoration, it flew again on September 24, 1988. The aircraft is painted in the wartime RCAF markings of the 419 Squadron, unit code VR-A aircraft in which P/O Andrew Mynarski of Winnipeg was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for attempting to rescue the trapped rear gunner from his blazing turret.

[1967 Impala]

Some B24's at Willow Run

[Xplantdad]

That is a really cool pic Robert!

[PeteLeathersac]

Great pics and that B24 shot is sure an a amazing part of Willow Run history before Novas were rolling out the door!.
Cool too how the B24's are already numbered in the pic...it'd be interesting to run a few and see what history they took part in next?.


Wasn't Willow Run where Tuckers were built too?.
Also anyone note what that Tucker sold for at the August RM Monterey auction...$1,017,500?!


~ Pete

[nuch_ss396]

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Some B24's at Willow Run

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That's an interesting paint scheme on these B-24's. Is this a work-in-progress paint scheme, or some attempt at
camoflague? Notice the row to the far right is all olive drab.

Nuch