Introduction of a new member

Hello all,
My name is Dan Mackay and I live In Calgary Canada. My main area of interest in World War Two aviation. I am an avid model builder and I'm always hunting reference material to assist me with my builds.
My grandfather fought in the Great War. He immigrated alone to Canada from the UK just before the war broke out. When war broke out he volunteered and joined the Royal Canadian Army and went to the front lines where he fought and survived all four years of the conflict. He returned to the UK for a couple of years where he married and started his family before coming back to Canada. He found employment with CN Rail and worked there until retirement.
My Father also joined the Royal Canadian Army in the late fourties and fought in the Korean War as an Army engineer. I have pictures of the bridges he helped build with Sherman easy eight tanks crossing over them. I also have pictures of the Half-track he tooled around in during the war.
I have always been fascinated about the history of WW2 in general as well, growing up I was fortunate to talk to family freinds who where vets such as Harold Kearl who flew Lancs in the RCAF and Helmut Gunther who was a member of a Flak 88 crew fighting T34s on the eastern front. I enjoyed talking with my sister-inlaws grandfather about his time as a flight engineer in He 111 flying primarly on the eastern front. He was often assigned one way missions (as fuel was short late in the war). He would find ways to conserve fuel complete his mission and be one of the few to return to base. After the war he fled East Germany in dramatic fashion, he secured himself in West Germany. His wife fled a few months later being stopped at the barbed wire and nearly shot, but somehow the guard missed on purpose and let her thru after finding out he was from the same town. They had both left there baby daughter behind in East Germany and later had her smuggled out in the trunk of a car. The whole family then immigrated to Canada.
Regards
Dan

 

Hi Dan, most welcome to this forum. I hope, you are enjoying a lot. However, I found very interesting what you said about your sister-inlaws grandfather. Thanks a lot, have a nice day, there..