But I should let him tell the story in his own words, as he told it to me.
“Lanc,” he would say, “Did I ever tell you how you got your name?”
“You mean ‘Laurence’?” I would ask innocently.
“Nah, ya little twerp . . . Lancaster!”
“Yes, dad, you’ve been telling me once a week since I was four.”
“How old are ya now?’
“Thirteen.”
“Well, it’s time I told you the real reason, then.”
I think it’s possible the war affected not only his bowel movements but also his short term memory. He invariably told the same story. Sometimes the details changed. Over the years the tale became more embroidered as dad honed his dramatic skills.
“Back in ‘fourty-four,” he’d say, “I was a tail-gunner in a Lancaster bomber.”
“Yes, dad, I know.”
“Gunner Gunnar they called me, so good they named me twice. I was a hell of a shot, boy. You know the term ‘hotshot’? They invented it when they saw me. Tweny-five kills to my credit. In the first week.
“I’ll tell you what, though. I hated climbing into that rat trap. It was colder than a polar bear’s butt. Scared the bejesus out of me every single night, too. When you’re in the tail, the first guy the bandits are shootin’ at is you. And there ain’t nowhere to run to except maybe the front of the plane, and if you do that the captain’s gonna smack you upside your head and tell you to get the hell back to your post.”
“So that’s how I got my name? The captain punched you in the head and the first thing you thought of was, ‘I’m going to name my boy Lanc?’”
“Smartass.”
About then was when he would cuff me on the ear.
“Pay attention, son. I’m tellin’ ya the family history here. I was in the last week of my hitch, believe it or not. A night raid on ****. We got a late start because the weather had been miserable all day and only started to clear at sundown.
“Yeah, the bomb run was routine, if you can call a bomb run routine. It’s a crazy thing, if you think about it. You set off in the dead of night loaded with enough TNT to blow you to hell one atom at a time. You fly half the night gettin’ stiff and sore from nothin’ to do but worry and pray. See these grey hairs? One raid per night is how I got them.”
Listening to the old man tell the story was an exercise in patience. Just as I was about to urge him to get to the point, he would say, “Hold on to your shorts, Lanc, I’m just gettin’ warmed up.
“It happened on the way home. We were flying high, I tell you. The bombardier had made a direct hit on a chocolate factory disguised as a military target and we were celebrating the inevitable victory of the Allies. Without chocolate, the Krauts were nothing, you know.
“But it was late, already, and we were racing the dawn all the way. About twenty miles out to sea, the sun popped over the horizon. Blood red she was, and a sign of no good if there ever was one. I crossed myself and said a prayer to St. Christopher, the sonofabitch. We had a long way to go and it would be broad daylight before we caught sight of old Mother England.
“The captain got on the intercom and said, ‘Gunner Gunnar, you keep your eyes peeled, now, fer them Nazi bastards. I got bangers and beans waitin’ fer me at the mess hall and I don’t want to miss out.’
“‘Yes, sir, captain, sir,’ I said, but my knees were knockin’, I don’t mind telling you. And sure enough, what do I see a few minutes later? A whole messa Schmitts, that’s what we called ‘em, Messaschmitts, you know, one was a Schmitt and more than one was a messa Schmitts. Anyway, these birds came screaming like banshees out of the east, straight out of the sun, seemed like hundreds of them, and I damn near shit my drawers!”
By now, my old man was warmed up and no mistake. He’d be standing, face flushed, gesticulating, and bouncing on both feet. He would stretch his arm out and point at the imaginary sun, squinting as if he were blinded by the dazzling light, and hunch his shoulders as he ducked the bullets.
“Holy shit! Cap’n, bandits at three o’clock!” he’d shout. “We’re in for it now!”
Then he would straighten up and fix me with a sombre expression.
“It seemed like the whole plane shuddered when I yelled. The next few minutes were like the funhouse at the midway. Just as I was about to fire, the squadron split off in two, fanning up and out, gaining altitude. Next thing I knew that messa Schmitts was bearing down on us from above with all guns blazing.
“The noise was like nothin’ I ever heard before. And the tail turret of a Lancaster ain’t no quiet day at the beach to begin with. Guns blasting, explosions, the roar of engines as the Schmitts buzzed past us. Lights flashing, sparks, smoke so thick you could chew it.
“Our buddies off to the left, flying Sir Lancelot, got hit. A plume of smoke poured out of the front of the plane. From where I was, I could see orange flames licking at the engines. She went into a dive and began to spin. No one got out of that plane, Lanc.”
Here, overcome by emotion, he would stop for a moment with his head down and his eyes closed, pondering the fiery fate of Sir Lancelot’s crew.
“Were they your friends, Dad?”
“Hell no!” he would say, “They were sonsabitches. The bombardier was the worst goddam cheater at poker I ever met!”
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