Home  |   Museum  |   Bomber Command  |   Aircrew Chronicles  |   Aircrew Losses  |   Nose Art  |   BCATP  |   Lancaster  |   Media

Past Special Events Archive

The Great Escape - A Canadian Story, the 70th Anniversary Commemoration. Our major summer event.

This event kicked off with a meet and greet on the evening of the 22nd. This was followed by a night run of the Lancaster's Merlins.

Saturday started off with a pancake breakfast cooked up by the Nanton & District Lions Club. This was followed by a gun turret demo, tours through the Lancaster Bomber and at 11:00 AM the running of the Lanc's Merlins again, Following this Greg Morrison hand propped the engine on the museum's Fleet Fawn, The engine runs were completed when the Bristol Hercules engine was fired up on its new trailer. This is always a crowd pleaser with noise and smoke!

At 12:30 author Ted Barris gave a presentation on his book, "The Great Escape - A Canadian Story." He very thoroughly demonstrated that this historic escape was led by Canadians, pointing out that the movie, The Great Escape, that indicated it was lead by Americans was not correct. Ted did agree that even so, the movie memorialized the event but emphasized that there were no Americans involved except one who had joined the RCAF.

The day continued with engine runs again at 2:00 pm, a flypast of vintage aircraft and finalized with the Re-enactors dressed in both Allied and German uniforms, having a mock skirmish which the Allies won.

Ted Barris Presents The Great Escape.