Showing The One Hundredth Airman by Reg Stead

Over the years Reg's literary talents have flourished. Writing a number of plays, short stories and contributing articles for quarrying magazines he then went on to write his first major work. In his retirement he has also become a respected landscape artist and the cover of his book 'The One Hundredth Airman' is a reproduction of one of his paintings. The book itself is a frank and true account of a young man Peter Anaka, a farm boy from Stenen, Saskatchewan riding his prized bike around the community, which allowed him to escape from the confines of the farm. His antics earned him the nickname 'Wild Peter' among his contemporaries for his trick cycling. On the other side Peter was quite adept on the violin and often joined orchestras at weddings and dances and other social functions. Whilst he toiled at his school work, events beyond those walls would have a dramatic affect on his life, his family's, friends and schoolmates and the lives of people around the world. It was the outbreak of the Second World War and suddenly Peter found it hard to concentrate on his studies. On July 12th 1941, at the age of 18 years and nearly 4 months, armed with his glowing testimonials he walked into the Royal Canadian Air Force Recruiting Centre. He learns to fly and pilots Lancaster bombers into battle over Europe. On one such mission he is shot down, losing all but one of his crew is picked up and harboured by the French Underground and eventually repatriated, returning home to his wife Elsie. He died of cancer in 1994. A remarkable story, one of no doubt thousands of so-far untold accounts of heroism and dedication to the cause of freedom.