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Narrator: During World War II,
young Canadians volunteered for
one of the most dangerous occupations
of the war - Bomber Command.
Ten thousand of them never came home.
Jack Singer: It was 2200 hours and
we were on our first sortie.
We climbed to height which took a while
with a bomb load on board.
When we approached the target area,
we started our bombing run.
The raid was already in full force
with flak coming up
all around the bombers ahead of us.
As the bombers jockeyed for position
I could see how very easily mid-air collisions
could occur but I saw none that night.
I don't think one is ever really prepared
for one's first sortie,
when the enemy is firing real live shells at you.
It seemed like an unreal world.
I dropped our bombs in the centre of the target.
The official results indicated
that the railway yards had been hit.
We headed for home, always watchful that
the enemy fighters would be on us at any minute.
Seven Lancasters were lost that night.
It was not unusual for crews to have only a few sorties
and then "go for the chop".
This was the expression for being shot down.
We arrived back over our base at 0500 hours.
We had completed our first sortie,
only 29 more to go to complete our tour.
With the odds we face. I will be dead soon.
God! Dead at 22 years of age,
how awful, but I was seeing it every day.
Narrator: Younger generations today may wonder
how the bomber crews ever did it.
Most veterans would tell them
that the bombing war was a dangerous job
but that it had to be done.
It was part of a total commitment
to defeat Hitler's Nazi regime.