[some of this orginally posted to BW]
At the UK Con this year, the speaker was Stamper Metcalfe, formerly a navigator in a Lancater crew with 100 Sqdn. His operations included the famous firebombing raid over Dresden and he brought with him the target map he was issued and took on the operation, complete with blacked off areas (the POW camps) and handritten pencil notes on the approach (069 degrees,18,000 feet).
http://stvuk.brinkster.net/UKAHConvention2002/IMG_1102.htmlDinner finished at 9pm and he was still speaking and answering questions at 11, and I could have listened to him all night. He was keen to see the game so we took him downstairs to the computer room.
We put him in a Lanc and he mastered taking off in about three goes ("where's me artificial horizon? Bloody hell, could they not have made it any bigger?") and he sat in the tail gun while we organised an escort of spits & hurris and some 109s to attack from the six.
The cry of joy as he got his first kill is something I wont forget. "That's one less jerry to worry about! Did you see how I took his wings off?") He was hooked and played until 3am. His poor wife couldnt drag him away (sound familiar?).
http://www.zeb.clara.net/webcam/gallery/saturday2/kif_0173.htmhttp://stvuk.brinkster.net/UKAHConvention2002/IMG_1111.htmlHe piloted while Drew flew gunner for him as they raided an nme
field. They took out some fighters on the way and as they approached the field Drew asked his captain's permission to go to the toilet. "Cross your bloody legs kid!"
Later, via the UK AW mailing list several of the con attendees arranged to send Stamper spare throttles, pedals, and joysticks. We organised him a free dsl line. This Sunday, Flossy and husband Zeb travelled up to his home in Northern England to set him up, sign him up and show him the ropes. He's just left me a voicemail message:
"If you want any planes destroyed, just send them up here. I can clip the wings off almost any plane you care to mention as I taxi out the hangar."
He has asked me to pass on his thanks to everyone for the help getting him set up. He is quite overwhelmed with the response of the Uk AH community, "Well I dont know what I;ve done to deserve all this." Risking his neck every night for two years seems like quite a lot to me, but to him it's come as a surprise that so many people still give a damn.
If you see handle 'Stamper' piloting a Lanc formation, be sure to say 'hello' - he is a genuine character, a thoroughly nice chap, and fifty years on he is once again approaching the target at angels one eight.
Trip
