Aircrew veterans’ flight down memory lane
FLYING in a small aeroplane for the first time since the end of the Second World War, Flight Sergeant John Galloway yesterday made the 680 mile round trip from Prestwick in Scotland to Gloucestershire for a reunion with 150 other aircrew veterans.
Around 90 private planes brought them together from all over the country for the annual “Project Propeller” meet-up. The flights are gifts from current pilots as a mark of gratitude and respect.
FS Galloway, who was a Lancaster gunner, described his trip, his first time taking part in the get-together, as “peaceful, but a bit cramped” and said he had “no nerves” about getting back up in the skies. His highlight of the day was receiving a replica set of his medals from Air Chief Marshal Sir John Cheshire – the originals were lost in a house fire in 1954.
One of the pilots flying the veterans was Peter Holmes, who flew from Surrey with FS Arthur Parker and Flt Lt Eric Smith. “It is good to see smiles on their faces, nice to give something back to the old boys,” he said.
For the veterans, all in their nineties or over a hundred, the experience is as close as they will come to recalling their time in the air in the 1940s.
Many though are reluctant to talk about their wartime experience. “It was a terrible war,” said Warrant Officer Harry Irons, a rear gunner who received the Distinguished Flying Cross. He said of the project: “It is an incredible afternoon, I look forward to it year after year. We chat about all sort of things, always thinking of those who aren’t here.”
Flight Engineer Dick Raymond and Navigator John Ottewell were both members of Lancaster squadrons. They met for the first time yesterday and swapped stories about Operation Exodus in which prisoners of war were flown back to England after walking westwards following their release by the Germans. FE Raymond survived the “Long March”, but “many didn’t”, he said. “You were simply shot by a Russian if you fell back.”
First Gulf War veteran John Nichol said of the project: “Events like this are really important because we need to say thank you to these men.
“They are the generation who gave everything.”