Awe inspiring...

[winny]

It's a bank holiday in the UK so I was dragged off kicking and screaming to the local garden centre... Great.

They have a book section there so I go over see a Spitfire book and pick it up.

An old man next to me says "I'm a Hurricane man myself" points at a book on Lancs and says "I was a Halifax man too"

So I asked him what he did during the war (expecting him to say he was a child)

He was a wireless operator on Halifax's from '43 till '45.

He flew 43 ops all over the place, told me about his first encounter with the shrage musik, his admiration for the 8th bomber group guys (how they did all those daylight raids amazed him). He got a 3 week break after completeing his first tour. He reckond most bombers would average about 10 ops before they were lost.

He mentioned his love for the "Merlin Mustang" as he called it.

He also told me the name of his Bomber - Friday the 13th - I googled it. Turns out that it's on display in the Yorkshire Air museum.

He said they called it Friday the 13th because it was delivered to them on Friday 13th it was also lettered 'F'

I only spent about 20 mins talking to him but I was blown away by his humility
and 'we just got on with it' attitude.

It was very humbling. It improved my visit to the garden centre vastly!