Few fighter pilots left alive

The sad part about ensuring World War Two fighter pilots and their stories are unforgotten is the few pilots left alive. “We don’t have many left,“said Todd Lemieux, a director on Vintage Wings Canada board. He and pilot Gord Simmons of Calgary were on a flight to Lemieux’s hometown of Moose Jaw with a vintage trainer. “We’ve maybe got four to five years and there won’t be any left.” Lemieux encountered a treasure in former Stearman pilot Harry Hannah before flying to Moose Jaw from Gatineau, Quebec. The Stearman biplane trainer Lemieux flew on tour is dedicated to Hannah. “Every one of our aircraft is named for a pilot. Some are dead. Some are alive. Some off them we don’t know much about.” Before flying the Stearman to a new home in Calgary Lemieux met Hannah in Gatineau, Quebec for a flight. “He’s amazing. He is 92. I spent the morning with him, briefing him on the plane. When we got to 500 feet I gave the controls to him. He flew it like he’d never missed a day. He hadn’t flown for 70 years.” Hannah’s story was untold for years. The native of Scotland joined the Royal Air Force, wanting to fly. Eventually he was sent to a civilian training base at Mesa Arizona in 1941 where he did his first solo flight in an incredible five hours. The ship in his convoy back was the one not sunk by the Germans. He led a charmed life during the war In 1943, he had to parachute from his bullet riddled Spitfire. He injured his ankle and was captured. As a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft Four, in today’s northern Poland, he and another prisoner broke into an office, looking for a camera to make escape documents. Both were court-martialed but their advocate convinced the court they were lawfully trying to escape under the Geneva Convention. They were retried in a civilian court. Hannah had two options — a work camp which was a death sentence — or one year in solitary confinement. He chose solitary. Liberating Russian troops freed him two years later and Hannah travelled via the Black Sea to England. He immigrated to Canada and had a career with Ford Motors. “He never talked to anybody about it all those years,” said Lemieux. A friend convinced Hannah a year ago to take pencil in hand and print his experiences in scribblers. Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@ sasktel.net