Return of the Dambusters: the Exploits of World War II's Most Daring Flyers After the Flood by John Nichol

Author:John Nichol [NICHOL, JOHN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS0271000
ISBN: 9781468316117
Publisher: ABRAMS, Inc. (Ignition)
Published: 2017-09-26T00:00:00+00:00

Don Cheney reunited with his family

Although the fighting in Europe continued, Don Cheney’s personal war was over, and he returned to Canada on Thanksgiving Day, 9 October 1944, two years to the day since he had left. His family and his girlfriend Gladys met him at the Ottawa Union railroad station. When he’d been shot down, his parents had received the news he was missing and had told Gladys at once. ‘It was such a great shock,’ she says, ‘and then there was no more news, nothing at all. All I could do was sit and wait and hope. It was all about waiting: waiting for letters, waiting for telegrams, hoping for good news. Just waiting. Suddenly, there he was, running past the ticket collector.’

Cheney recalls:

I came through the barrier, and there were my mother, father and Gladys all lined up waiting. It was overwhelming for us all. They’d been there when I’d left two years before, now they were standing in the same place to welcome me home. I hadn’t even spoken to any of them for two years, but here was the image of home I had held on to and longed for during the darkest times. I realised how lucky I’d been. It was difficult to believe everything I’d gone through and yet I was now home. It was almost unreal. The first thing I asked for was a banana; I hadn’t seen one for years and really wanted one now! We piled into the car, laughing and crying, it was all a blur and such a happy time, but tinged with real sadness for my dead crew. Inside, I was still crying because of them and I still think of them every day.

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