SEE:
AT THE
HANGER LANCASTER BOMBER FM136
LADY
ORCHID
I would like to provide
this narrative for about my Old/New Girl Friend
Lady Orchid, with her
own nose art!
She is just 10 years
older than I at 72, also we have known each other since April 1962; the last time that
this aircraft flew.
FM136 is the City of
Calgary’s Memorial to all the thousands of aircrews who flew
in planes like her and died by the thousands to pulverize the
Nazi War machine.
I had the honor in
helping to get her ready recently, well as best as I can due
to my disabilities for
July 1st Canada Day 150.
So, folks you can to go
inside and view her on Sunday July 2nd, 2017.
In
April 1962, my Dad wanted my brother and I to see and hear a
Lancaster Bomber
as he
did when he was a kid and nightly/daily 1,000 Bomber Raids
would
fly
over his home in Arnhem Holland going to Germany from 1940
to 1945.
He
said that you could hear the drum, drum, drum of their
engines 30 minutes before you could even know that they were
flying over head which seem to last for hours.
Then
the loud booms and crackle of nearby 88 millimeter
antiaircraft guns from the Germans.
In
1945 Holland was starving and Bomber Command made a truce
with the Germans, so food could be dropped to the starving
Dutch people. This was not because the Germans were all
heart but they knew the Canadians were coming for them very
soon, as the War was ending.
From 29 April 1945 to the end of World War II
in Europe on 9th of May 1945, Operations Manna
and Chowhound took place. These two operations; Manna by the
Royal Air Force (29 April – 7 May) and Chowhound by the U.S.
Air Force (1-8 May), dropped a total of 11,000 tons of food
into the still-unliberated western part of the Netherlands,
with the acquiescence of the occupying German forces, to
help feed civilians who were in danger of starvation.
When this proved insufficient, Operation Faust
was launched as well.
On 2 May 1945, 200 Allied trucks began
delivering food to the city of Rhenen Holland,
just behind German lines.
By early 1945, the situation was
growing desperate for the three million or more Dutch still
under German control. Prince Bernhard appealed directly to
Allied Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, but
Eisenhower did not have the authority to negotiate a truce
with the Germans. While the prince got permission from and
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, King George the 6th,
Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Prime Minister
Mackenzie King. Eisenhower had
Air Commodore Andrew Geddes begin planning immediately. On
23 April, authorization was given by the Chief of Staff,
George Marshall. Once again, the
drum, drum, drum of thousands of aircraft and now, the
Lancaster’s were in daylight like the US Airforce flew,
dropping food instead of 72,000lbs Grand Slam Bombs etc.
etc. etc.
In 1964/1965 my friends
and I, used to ride up on our bicycles to our Lancaster at
the Calgary airport. Once there we used the borrowed ladder
(Yeah that’s what we did, we bowered the ladder), climbing
though the removed radar dome. We were all told if we did
not break anything, steal anything, use her as a washroom or
eat food in her.
Then
the GOOD Commissionaires would allow us to play Dam Busters
all
day long, all summer long!
Then
one day we were told that some Grease Balls DAMAGED the
Lancaster
or
broke a rule and as rules are rules!
Just
because of these carburetor-brained greasers, we lost our
Lancaster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsM_VmN6ytk
Sadly, one of 3 better
fences were also erected one bigger and
more
barbed than the last so no one could sneak in
in
this Lancaster, any more.
Until
I returned to her 52 years later this week for it now was OK
to go
inside her once again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biq0NAF2e60
Yesssssssssssss,
eh!!!!!
By,
Richard G.
Abbenbroek
http://www.thehangarmuseum.ca/exhibits/avro-lancaster-mk-x
THE HANGER AN AIR
MUSEUM WITH ALTITUDE!
http://www.thehangarmuseum.ca/
