George Laidlaw is a novelist and President of the Ottawa Independent Writers.
For those in Canada and the world the time after the World War 11 was called the Cold War. We were confronted with the belief that there was going to be a war with the Soviet countries.
So sure of this eventuality, the Americans made plans for war and practiced their aerial attack so they would be ready when war began.
Out of Anchorage, Alaska, the Americans flew a plane designed for the Second World War that didn't get into mass production. It was called the PeaceMaker B36 a long range bomber. In practice runs it flew from Alaska, did a strafing run over San Francisco, then flew on to Texas.
One winter night while flying through British Columbia air space the Peacemaker hit an ice and slush storm and three engines stopped before catching fire. The crew bailed out.
While floating down in their parachutes they could see the plane above them.
Suddenly the engines restarted and the plane turned and flew toward the B.C. interior.
On board that plane was an Atomic Bomb.
Few people know that in 1950 a plane crashed in mainland B.C. carrying a nuclear weapon.
To learn more about this and possible atomic disaster read the book, A Fat Boy Is Missing by George Laidlaw www.georgelaidlaw.ca.
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