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Case protected heart from shrapnel continued from p.13 "They were so well-protected, we didn't have a chance," he said. "You could drop bombs, but they didn't do a thing because the submarines were in special thick concrete pens." During one raid, Wanamaker said his bomber was "coned," a particularly terrifying situation in which the aircraft is illuminated by multiple searchlights directed from the ground. He noted the searchlights were hard to escape and basically targeted the bomber for every antiaircraft gunner and fighter pilot in the area. "If you got caught in the searchlights, you figured you were done," said Wanamaker. On that occasion, an anti-aircraft shell blasted off his bomber's wing tip, which sent the aircraft into a free fall briefly before Wanamaker was able to pull up and get the bomber back home. Wanamaker had an even closer call a short time after signing up for second tour, this time in an Avro Lancaster bomber. During a bombing raid, Wanamaker's plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire, which destroyed one of its four engines. The target had been in Germany so Wanamaker then had to make his way back to England in a bomber that could no longer maintain its altitude and was slowly going down. "It just kept going down and down and down. We figured at least we were getting closer to England and within range of the Air/Sea Rescue bunch," he said. "Finally, we just landed on the water and down she went." Fortunately, the crew was well-practised in getting out of the plane in the event of a water landing and was able to quickly deploy an emergency raft before the plane sank. "We got in the raft without even getting our feet wet," said Wanamaker. "That's good because this was in February so it wasn't exactly hot." On another occasion, Wanamaker was saved from some shrapnel from an anti-aircraft round by the metal cigarette case he had in his jacket pocket. The Oakville resident says he was lucky because he wasn't supposed to have brought the case onboard the plane. He still has the case today... still visibly dented and mangled from where the shrapnel struck it. Wanamaker said his crew would deal with these near misses in their own way. "You thanked God and we swore a lot," he said. "You just had to keep going. Focus on your job." Other flight crews were not so lucky. While some missions would go by without a single plane being lost, at other times five planes or more would be shot down. Since the missions took place at night, he would not know the full extent of the bomber group's loss until he returned to base. Following the war, Wanamaker married his girlfriend Ruth Grant in 1947. They had one son. Wanamaker went on to enjoy a variety of careers, which ranged from building baby furniture to shipbuilding. DIAMOND 17 | Thursday September 14, 2017 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insidehalton.com DIAMOND Voted Best Accountant by Oakville Beaver Readers for 11 Consecutive Years CPA, CA, MBA, B. Eng Ricky W Wong For more information please check our website www.rickywong.ca · Accounting · Auditing · Taxation 1200 Speers Rd., Unit 32, Oakville, Ont. L6L 2X4 (905) 845 - 1408 | Fax (905) 845 - 5931 | ricky@rickywong.ca Pic-A-Deli Weekly Specials: · Thursday Nights: Domestic $ 99 Pint & 1 lb of Wings 9 · Daily special: Large 3 item $ 99 Pizza Dine In & Pick up only Featuring Best Montreal Smoked Sandwiches · All Day Breakfast. 9 Hours: Monday - Saturday 7 am - 1 am Closed Sundays. 670 Fourth Line (905) 339-1905 Look Great FeeL Great State-of-the-art cardio & Nautilus equipment Pay as you go First 25 members receive memberships. FrEE PrizE PaCk NO including: gloves, committment! Boxing OBFT key chain, info@watersedgefitness.ca info@obft.ca e Wffer .. o h t . bo Exclusive Boxing Studio offering Private & Group: Boxing Classes Functional Strength Training Yoga Classes OBFT Shaker cup with 5 servings of protein powder. 11 Lakeshore Road W., Oakville 905.845.0064