THE DAREDEVIL CREWMAN
An unexpected visit created quite a buzz among these first-graders!
One contributor recalls the day in 1945 he and his first-grade classmates got the thrill of a lifetime!
Looking back, the following incident in late 1945 or early 1946 was humorous—but not so much at the time! I attended Grade One at Earl Kitchener, a small elementary school in Medicine Hat, Alta. It was situated about 100 feet from the top edge of the river valley escarpment, above the downtown core. Twice a day at recess, we were turned loose to our own devices in the gravel school yard.
One day at recess, with all the children merrily milling about in the school yard, a deep rumbling noise, which became increasingly louder, stopped everyone in their tracks. It was a very loud, scary noise that had never been heard by any of us before. Suddenly, a huge, brown four-engine aircraft popped up over the escarpment, flying very low at approximately 200 feet above the ground.
I guess there was no Department of Transport regulations for military aircraft. The ground literally shook and the brown monster flew straight at us. The noise was deafening! One of the boys hollered at the top of his lungs, “The Germans are coming, the Germans are coming!” Everyone panicked and ran in all directions. I remember stopping suddenly and saying, “The war is over, so it can’t be the Germans.” To our relief, the aircraft flew over, banked to the left and flew out of sight. Whew!
Not too long after, however, we heard the ominous roar getting louder and louder. Once again the aircraft popped up over the escarpment! That huge four-engine beast was flying directly at us at an even lower altitude than the first time! As the plane flew over us, we saw a crewman standing at the open side door on the right-hand side of the aircraft, hanging on with one hand and happily waving to us with the other. That image remains forever etched in my mind. Awestruck, we all waved back, open-mouthed, hoping that he didn’t fall out of the open door! And away the plane flew into the wild blue yonder. The noise gradually faded to silence.
I later learned that the aircraft was a Lancaster Bomber returning from overseas duty to be decommissioned somewhere in western Canada. I’ve thought many times that the pilot may well have attended our little school and decided to “buzz” his ol’ alma mater.
The name of that daredevil crewman remains unknown to this day.