Mynarski Memorial Lancaster named in honour of Winnipeg war hero Andrew Mynarski



Nicknamed VeRA for its flight initials, VR-A, it is also known as the Mynarski Memorial Lancaster in honour of Andrew Mynarski, who grew up in Winnipeg's North End and died trying to help rescue a trapped crew member aboard a Lancaster that was on fire and going down.

Unable to free his friend, tail gunner Pat Brophy, and with his parachute and clothing on fire, Mynarski reluctantly gave up and jumped.

He did not survive the fall...

he aircraft, KB726, was attacked from below and behind by an enemy fighter. The plane caught fire, two engines failed, and it began plummeting.

The captain ordered everyone to parachute to safety.

Mynarski strapped on his parachute and was about to abandon the plane when he saw Brophy trapped in his turret. Mynarski ran to help but the hydraulics for the hatch were damaged. After a number of attempts to pull it open, Mynarski repeatedly hit the turret with a fire axe but to no avail.

Brophy yelled for Mynarski to save himself. He crawled through the burning plane, his clothing on fire. When he reached the escape hatch, he stood at attention, saluted his friend and jumped into the night.

Brophy, who survived the crash when the turret broke open and pitched him out, later recounted the story of his friend's heroism, and how Mynarski said, 'Good night, sir,' as he saluted.

Mynarski's descent was rapid due to the burning parachute. He hit the ground hard and also suffered extensive burns. French farmers found him and rushed him to a doctor, but he died soon after at age 27.

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

Brutal. Heroes all. A beautiful plane.

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No baby we aint

Hand Salute!
The only one I’ve ever seen is the one in Tucson.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

According to the article, there are only two that are airworthy:

...in 2014, [it] was flown to England to tour the U.K. with the world's only other flying Lancaster

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

i really recommend 'Inferno,' by Joe Pappalango. It's about the bloody battles fought by the 8th USAAF over Europe.

The Lancaster at Tucson is at the Pima Air and Space Museum.
It’s not air worthy.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

The British night bombers like the Lancaster didn't have effective ventral gun turrets, so attacks from behind and below became SOP for Luftwaffe night fighters. Many were fitted with upward firing cannons behind the cockpit, an installation called Schräge Musik in German.

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Release the Kraken

I was looking at the pics and wondering where the belly guns were!

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

That's an AEW Shackleton, a kind of early AWACS. The RAF used them until 1991 if you can believe it. They were proof that 100,000 rivets could be made to fly in formation. That's just what they sounded like with four Griffon engines driving contra-rotating propellers. Three of them flew past my house in England on their way to St Mawgan to be decommissioned.

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Release the Kraken

See The Avro Shackleton: 40 Years of Maritime Patrol Excellence

The Lancaster did not have contra-rotating props.

I was the sole active duty U.S. Air Force air traffic controller
assigned on temporary duty to Royal Air Force Waddington in
Lincoln for an Oklahoma Air National Guard exercise there.

The tower boys let me work the day four Lancasters took off to
fly over Windsor Castle in honor of Her Majesty the Queen's
mother's 90th birthday. What a treat. That was 1990. I still have
the 10-pound coin issued to celebrate the Queen Mother's birthday.

I also had the grand opportunity to run the last flying Avro Vulcan
around the pattern several evenings while I was there. A large
photo of that bird signed by all the crew hangs in my reading
nook off the living room.

See The Last Flight Of The Vulcan - Vulcan To The Sky

The video in the link also shows a Lancaster fly-by.

I'd handled the Vulcan in the tower pattern at Nellis AFB in Las
Vegas in the 1970 when the RAF would fly in for Red Flag exercises,
but I'd only seen pictures of the Lancaster before. Neat bird.

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Wrangler of stray Chiefs
Bob

For an excellent read on first hand account of B-17 Pilot in the 8th USAAF find and read “ A Fall of Fortresses”. Author’s seat was hit by a 20 mm shell that did not explode. When Ord. guys opened the projectile they found a note written in Slavic, “what little I can do”……..

Not to distract from this Lancaster thread but Pima, outside Tucson is an incredible place.

Some photos from the A-10 display, including the 75th Fighter Squadron, my son's old unit.

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Texas Raiders, formerly based here in Conroe, also was configured as an early AWACS aircraft, a PB1-W, in its many-faceted history...I had the privilege of touring and photographing it many times before its tragic loss at a recent Dallas air show......Ben

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Cogito, ergo BOOM!...

It's amazing how innovative you can be when the enemy is at your doorstep every day and every night. If the Germans would have needed to fly 500 miles to engage the bombers, their tactics would have been less effective.

Wow. To survive a crash and know your friend died trying to save you. Brophy must have borne a weight his entire life.