SALZBURGERS don't know it but the picturesque city, a gem on Austria's tourist map, is deeply indebted to Haddington-born and bred Dave McManus and his conscience.
He was the observer (bomb aimer) in a Lancaster on a daylight raid on Salzburg in 1944 and from his East Lothian home he recalls the occasion.
"The city was our target but surveying it from 12,000 feet it looked so pretty I couldn't bring myself
to bomb the hell out of it. It was Mozart's birthplace, after all.
"We still had to jettison our bombs and purely on principle I persuaded our pilot, an Edinburgh man, to make for an alternative close by – Berchtesgaden, which was Hitler's mountain-top hideaway throughout the war."
Adds Dave, 85, who was in RAF aircrew for eight years: "I was lucky in that of my 22 missions in Lancasters and Mosquitos, all in '44, 21 were night raids and I survived."
The Bomber Command Association are harnessing cross-party support led by the PM in a campaign to raise £2 million to build in central London a memorial to the 55, 573 airmen who died. Of the 7373 Lancs built, 3500 were lost. Only two are airworthy today.
Hitler was out at the time, by the way.
Stadium stalwart • Steve Cardownie, walking to work early morning is talking on his moby. "Excuse me, John, I've just seen a woman chuck a piece of paper on to the street."
A word in her ear and the vigilant, Jambo-loving Stevie was back with me: "I'm on my way to say goodbye to Pedro Lopez, who was a prime mover at Tynecastle for the new stadium – it'll be fantastic, really atmospheric – and he's off to Moscow to tackle projects there.
"Something else fantastic . . . Edinburgh's Christmas celebrations. The ice rink, the Spiegeltent – I'll be home with the family for that and for New Year."
And for the derby. Hearts entertain Hibernian on January 3. May the better team win, as long as we see a decent game of football. Lord, save us from a kickin' match.
Afterwords . . . . . "I am a romantic but I am a realist too. When I write hard stuff it's always done with a little bit of humour. But we all do have some darkness in us," Ray Davies of the Kinks explains.
The full article contains 399 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
