Wartime memories flood back for Bomber Command veterans

Two Mansfield veterans of Bomber Command paid an emotional trip back to those wartime days when they boarded a legendary Lancaster Bomber last week.

As Ron Brown, 81, and Dennis Slack, 79, both the last surviving members of their crews, climbed aboard the plane at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, the memories came flooding back.

"It makes you wonder how we managed to get in all those years ago", commented Ron as they clambered over the spar in the middle of the fuselage

"We were younger then" replied Dennis

"I can see all the members of my crew in their position ready for take off", said Ron, a veteran of 64 wartime missions, "You can smell the glycol and cordite."

Dennis, a former bomb aimer on the Halifaxes of 158 Squadron, squeezed in to his position at the front of the plane for the first time since he was shot down over Berlin 59 years ago.

"Just climbing on to the plane you get that tense feeling, you could fill a book with the memories you get when you are inside the aircraft."

"In 1943 you got the word "ops on" and the tension built up during the day but as soon as the plane was airborne the tension disappeared as you had a job to get on with."

The day of nostalgia was completed with the sound of the four Merlin engines as they roared into life at the start of the taxi run.

The centre at the former bomber airfield at East Kirkby was founded by brothers Fred and Harold Panton in memory of their brother Christopher and all the Lincolnshire bomber crews who failed to return.

As Ron and Fred talked about his brother Ron realised he was on the same raid over Nuremberg that Christopher and his crew were shot down along with another 95 aircraft.

The centre is between Coningsby and Spilsby on the A155