Peter Isaacson interview

[J.D.]

Telling it like it was, WWII Lancaster pilot Peter Isaacson, now aged 93, talks to Guy Stayner:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-04/r ... ot/5000336" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Peter Isaacson went on to become a widely respected journalist, editor and newspaper publisher. He was also famous for flying a Lancaster bomber under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

I was interested to hear this because I interviewed a former RAAF Spitfire pilot a couple of years ago and his answers were exactly the same, even to the language. Many older people refer to themselves in the second person; "You did this or that", instead of using the first person "I". Because of this, I found it difficult to get much in the way of emotion out of the bloke I spoke to. I hypothesise that this was their way of removing themselves from the terror of what they were doing. Both men say they ("you") were too busy to be afraid. I also suggest that they made themselves busy so as not to be distracted by the horrors of what was going on around them.

Both had to live with more than just the fear of being killed or maimed. One has the possibility of being captured by the Japanese. The other, who is Jewish, by the Nazis. Their odds of survival were not good.