Oakville man 99 recalls his time as Lancaster pilot by David Lea Oakville Beaver Staff 13 | Thursday September 14, 2017 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insidehalton.com An Oakville Second World War bomber pilot says smoking saved his life in 1944. That's when a piece of shrapnel torn through his Lancaster bomber and would have pierced his heart, had it not been for the metal cigarette lighter in his jacket pocket. Reg Wanamaker spoke about his time flying for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) shortly before celebrating his 99th birthday on Sept. 8. During the Second World War, Wanamaker flew as part of a bomber group that attacked targets in Germany and occupied Europe while dodging enemy fighters and fire from antiaircraft guns. "When you took off on a mission, you never knew if you were coming back," said Wanamaker. "That's just the way it was." The Brock Street resident, who has called Oakville home since 1938, put his ambition to be an electrician on hold and volunteered with the military following the outbreak of war in 1939. Having learned to fly as a prerequisite to possibly starting an aircraft building business, Wanamaker signed up for the air force where he was trained as a bomber pilot. At 22, he said, he was considered too old to be Former Lancaster bomber pilot Reg Wanamaker shows a dented cigarette case, which stopped a piece of shrapnel from piercing his heart in 1944. | David Lea/Metroland a fighter pilot. By 1943, Wanamaker found himself in England where he was made pilot of a Vickers Wellington bomber, a twin-engine aircraft, which carried a crew of six. Wanamaker wasn't a fan. "You couldn't fly them in a straight flat elevation. They always wanted to drift up and down." Wanamaker would fly the Wellington for 31 missions, in bomber groups of 19-20 aircraft. The missions almost always took place at night. "You never went straight where you were going. You always went somewhere else first," he said. "This was to confuse the Germans. You had to because otherwise they would shoot the hell out of you." Flying in enemy territory for the first time was unnerving admitted Wanamaker, noting he would peer into the darkness in vain to see if there were enemy aircraft coming for them. When the fighters did show up, they made their presence known, sometimes attacking the bomber from behind, at which point it was the job of the tail-gunner to fight them off. At other times, Wanamaker said enemy planes would meet the bombers head on. "It was just...there they were... bang, bang, bang," he said. The bombers also had to worry about antiaircraft fire, which varied in intensity depending on how important the target was to the Germans. Wanamaker said the U-boat (submarine) base at Kiel, Germany was one place he remembers being particularly well-defended. With the U-boats ravaging Allied convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic, Wanamaker's bomber group was tasked with making repeated raids on the Kiel facility. see Case on p.17 limited time only! Single Mattress $399 Double Mattress $499 All sizes Available! 238 Main Street, East · 905.878.4606 MILTON 2150 Burnhamthorpe Road · 905.542.0481 MISSISSAUGA HOURS: Monday - Wednesday 10am - 6pm · Thursday - Friday 10am - 8pm · Saturday 9am - 6pm · Sunday 11am - 5pm