Andrew
Hi, on Remembrance Day we pause to remember those men and women who
have died or suffered in all wars, conflicts and peace operations. Today, in
particular, we remember those who served during World War II in Europe.
Recently I saw the movie “Fury”, a World War II movie about 5 men in a tank
fighting toward Germany in April 1945. It is also a top grossing movie, perhaps
because Brad Pitt is in it. It shows the horrors of war - and at the same time the
loyalty, trust and interdependence amongst those men that was necessary to
survive. I think my granddad, Walter MacLean, felt the same way towards his
crew, all of whom survived the odds to return home safely in 1945.
This is their story.
Lorne
As a new recruit Dad began his air force training at a Manning Depot. After 4 or 5
weeks of training, a selection committee would decide if a recruit would be
trained for aircrew or ground crew. Dad was selected for the former. Pilot and Air
Observer (aka navigator) candidates began their training program at an Initial
Training School. The first entry in Dad’s log book is March 1943 when he began
training at Air Observers School in St John’s, Quebec. For recruits in this stream,
the training path after the initial training included Air Observer School (AOS),
Bombing & Gunnery School, and finally 1 Navigation School. The basic navigation
techniques used throughout the war years were dead reckoning (setting a course
that should take 20 minutes and checking you compass after 20 minutes to see if
you were where you were supposed to be) and visual pilotage (looking out the
window), and the tools were the aeronautical chart, magnetic compass, watch,
trip log, pencil, Douglas protractor, and Dalton Navigational Computer, similar to
a slide rule.[10] Recruits also studied Aerial photography.
Air Observer Schools
British P10 Magnetic Compass with dead reckoning navigation tools
After graduating as a navigator that August, Dad was sent to England and October
1943 began more training. Dad once remarked that he didn’t think he would
survive the training and see any actual war experience because the crews,
especially the pilots, were so inexperienced. At the mess one day he met another
Canadian, Jimmy Huck, from Kitchener. Jimmy had found himself an experienced
pilot and transferred to that crew. Jimmy succeeded in helping Dad to join that
crew as well. This was the crew Dad spent most of the war with. In the bomber
command, fatalities were more than 50%. The pilot on Dad’s crew, Ivor Soar, was
an experienced pilot before the war. The entire crew was indebted to his skill and
calm leadership.
Africa and Sterlings
Britain and Lancaster
June 1944 - December 1944
January 1945 – May 1945
Ivor Soar
Pilot
Gyn Rees
Flt Engineer
Cecil Keys
Radio Operator
Walter MacLean
Navigator
Jimmy Huck
Rear Gunner
W Flanaghan
Ted Beswick
F. Blofeld
Harold Heppenstall
From June until December 1944 they were part of 624 Squadron stationed in
North Africa and flew Short Sterlings. Over the years we had seen Dad’s pictures
from North Africa and heard stories of some of their off duty exploits, but he
never talked about what they did respecting the secret nature of these missions.
From his log book and recent war records the 624 Squadron we know that they
dropped supplies and even agents into France and Italy. Some missions record
them dropping leaflets to encourage resistance to the German occupation. These
missions were dangerous – they were often flying at about 500 ft. to accurately
make the drops and were well within range for enemy anti-aircraft fire.
In late 1944, 624 was disbanded as these operations were wound down. Most of
the crew remained together and transferred to England. After more training they
joined 61 Squadron, part of Number 1 Bomber Group until May of ‘45. One of
their more memorable flights was a day raid over the Hamburg submarine pens
on April 9, 1945, when they encountered for the first time a German jet. 50 years
later, an artist was commissioned as part of the Queen’s VE celebrations and his
painting tells the story of Dad’s crew that day. Andrew will tell you that story.
Andrew
This is what the artist David Pentland wrote about the painting and he refers to
Cecil Keyes who was a member of granddad’s crew.
David Pentland writes - “Early in 1995, I attended my great uncle’s funeral in a
town near Belfast. His old friends gave him a good send off and afterwards over a
few drinks I fell into conversation with one of them, a World War 2 Royal Air
Force radio operator, Cecil Keys. So it was by this chance that I found the subject
for my next painting. Cecil related that most of his war had involved bombing
missions by night over Europe or clandestine weapons drops for the French
resistance from bases in North Africa. Towards the closing days of the war though
the RAF undertook some daylight raids and it was on Cecil’s last mission of the
war that he had his encounter with the deadly Messerschmitt 262. The Lancaster
bomber crews felt reasonably safe with their escort of Polish Mustangs against a
broken Luftwaffe largely grounded through fuel shortages, but as the RAF lined up
for their attack on the Hamburg U-boat pens, the unexpected occurred as
German jets ripped into the bombers. Temporarily at a loose end Cecil took this
moment to glance out the astrodome while the navigator (my granddad) was
directing the bomb run, and it was at this moment Cecil saw the aircraft speeding
directly towards him near the tail of the bomber stream. He vividly described how
the jet having slipped past the escort opened fire on the aircraft behind his
sending it into a terminal dive, while his escaped the same fate by virtue of the
fact the Me262 was travelling too fast to get in an aimed shot.”
Lorne
Copies of this painting were circulated to all the crew, signed by all, and
distributed to each of the crewmen. Dad’s copy is here today and we’ll bring it
down stairs during lunch.
In 2005, the BBC created a TV show “We’ll Meet Again”. People were encouraged
to write in and describe a wartime experience and request to find out what
happened to people they hadn’t seen since the war. The daughter of one of the
crewmen, Ted Beswick from England wrote in and his story was selected for the
show. The reunion of the 1945 crew was to take place in Ottawa and the BBC
arranged for my Dad, Jimmy Huck, who still lived in Kitchener and “Heppy”
Hepenstall to be reunited with Ted, in the Lancaster on display at the war
museum. I attended the dinner the BBC hosted the night before the filming with
Dad. Unfortunately, the trip was too much for him and Dad was hospitalized
following the dinner and unable to be at the war museum the next day.
Generously, the BBC sent crews to film both Ivor Soar, who was unable to travel
from England and later to Dad at his home in Nova Scotia so that their best wishes
to the rest of the crew were included in the program. This is their segment of the
show.
Dad had a lifelong love of flying. When I was 16, he bought a Cessna 177. Often on
his way home he’d make a detour to the local airport for a quick flight to wind
down after a day of surgery and caring for patients. He and mom also attended
many of the Air Force reunions in Winnipeg and he attended local legion levees
and veteran’s dinners up until his final year.