Wartime history recalled with 92-year-old's return to Poland

[caption id="attachment_40304" align="alignright" width="405"] WARTIME MEMORIES: Colin Trader with a model of the B-24J Liberator. Picture: MIKE HOLMES[/caption]

A NELSON Mandela Bay war veteran will be heading to Poland this month to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising.

Colin Trader, who was part of the ground crew of Squadron 31 of the South African Air Force during the uprising, said he had been invited by the mayor of Warsaw.

But he admits to having mixed feelings about the trip.

"It's a long, long way to go and if you look at the programme, it's going to be packed with activities.

"They might have to cart me around at some point because my legs are not so strong and I have a hip problem. "But it is going to be an interesting, if sombre, affair. There will also need to be interpreters because I haven't spoken the language in a while."

Trader, 92, who is also the chairman of the SA Air Force Association in Port Elizabeth, was part of the crew that worked on the Consolidated Vultee B-24J Liberator in August 1944. The 31 and 34 Squadron of the South African Air Force took part in supply drops. - Thulani Gqirana