I got a phone call from a WWII vet......

Leigh,
that's a great story, I hope you are able to get in touch with the rest of the crew. My friend says his father in law is going to take the model I built to his RAF vetrans meeting and show it off. I wish I had the time off work to be there!

Dominic,
A lot of my family have seen conflicts over the years and most of them will tell little of their combat experience, so I try not to ask too many questions. However, once in a while my grandfathers would drink a little more than usual and swap war stories. I was very young at the time and I cannot recall all of the experiences I heard now. I wish I could go back in time and tell them how thankful we all are to those who have gone before us and to hear their stories one more time. I know I'll never forget them or those like them.

Darren.

When I was a teenager I used to drink in a little pub run by a guy and his wife. Both were in their 60's and had run the pub for years. I always drank in the Public Bar, never the Saloon, but one night myself and my mates had to use the Sallon due the other bar being full.

What a shock! On the walls were pictures of Lancasters etc. On seeing me looking at these the landlord explained that he had bee a rear gunner on a Lanc.. He recounted the tail of how a nightfighter lunged out of the darkness, before performing a wingover and disappearing back into the murk. All so fast that the landlord never had time to fire his guns. That apparently was his closest brush with the Luftwaffe.

Karl

There are a few good links that tell more about Ted Dejewski and his WW2 experience. You will find the links on the :

http://www.armyairforces.com/forum/m_95245/tm.htm

 I research American missions to targets in Poland in WW2. In two weeks I will go to the Polish mountains to look for Ted's pilot, who was never found.

 Szymon.

I thoroughly wish my grandfather hadn't died when i was 6.  He was a VVS mechanic in prussia in '43.  Went on to be a jet materials engineer after the war.  died of colon cancer after a botched surgery.  aside from all he could've told me about the design specifics of aircraft from 4 nations of origin along with a personalized history of the jet age, it would've been great to have him around.

but i did get plenty of interaction with my grandmother (of the other side of the family).  i doubt she would've been too happy to talk about airplanes much however.  remember her telling me that she much preferred the shelling:  you know the shells are going to land on one side of the street whereas the bombs can end up anywhere.  her brother is still alive and still stammers because of the bomb that landed on the shelter they were in during a bombardment.  not that she was too crazy about artillery either:  always screamed her head off at me whenever i dug up any shell fragments or rifle-caliber rounds in the woods around the house.