'In Friendly Skies'
Part I
During the Second World War, Patricia Bay (today’s Victoria International) Airport was part of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan in which 1000’s of Canadian, British, Australian and New Zealand airmen were trained.
179 of those young airmen never made it overseas.
The Lost Airmen of the Empire memorial is on Hospital Hill, Mills Road, on the north side of the Victoria International Airport.
They were killed in crashes while learning to fly at a time of blackouts, in extremes of weather and over some of the wildest terrain on the continent. Some of them have never been found.
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For King and Country they gave their lives without ever coming under enemy fire, while thousands of miles from the war zones of Asia and Europe. They were the airmen of coastal defence and trainee aircrews assigned to Patricia Bay as part of the BCATP during the Second World War.
In their memory, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission dedicated a Cross of Sacrifice at Royal Oak Burial Park. One of only 26 such Crosses placed by the Commission in North America, and the first to be placed in Canada since 1969, it joined the more than 40 graves of airmen in Section ‘D’ of the Burial Park that are under the care of the Commission.
A press release at the time noted that “Many of the dead buried in this section lost their lives while flying from Pat Bay Airport doing air training or coastal defence and anti-submarine patrols on the west coast of Canada during the Second World War.”
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On Dec. 17, 1939, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand formally agreed to establish the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan to train pilots, navigators, wireless operators, bomb-aimers, gunners, flight engineers, fitters, mechanics and armourers in Canada. The country was divided into four training commands, British Columbia, Manitoba and part of Saskatchewan being assigned to Command No.4, with headquarters in Regina, although this was later moved to Calgary.
Interest in then-pastoral Patricia Bay (future site of Victoria International Airport) as an R.C.A.F. ‘landplane and seaplane’ base dated back to September 1936. By the outbreak of war, three years later, the first negotiations between Ottawa and private landowners for what had been re-termed the Patricia Bay Aerodrome and Seaplane Base were well underway and land clearing begun.
It wasn’t until Jan. 16, 1941, however, that the Crown “acquired title to the original airport land package,” wrote Elwood White and Peter L. Smith in Wings Across the Water, their 2005 history of Victoria’s flying heritage, 1871-1971.
Previously, the first official landing of an RCAF aircraft and crew had been recorded on Sunday, Oct. 22, 1939, the Avro 626 having had to use the abandoned CNR right-of-way because the runways were still under construction. Four days later, after the arrival of a small contingent of support staff, the RCAF ensign was hoisted over ‘Patricia Bay Station’ for the first time.
In May 1940, four Westland Lysanders and a Grumman Goose of No. 111 CAC (Coast Artillery Cooperation) Squadron took up station at Pat Bay, their support equipment following from the Mainland by barge, and the new CO, Wing Commander G.A. Mercer, arriving on the 20th. Over the next six years, Pat Bay would serve as the operational base for three operational training units (one of them Royal Air Force), one composite squadron (the ‘Flying Joe Boys’), five bomber squadrons and five fighter squadrons.
Pat Bay evolved, in the words of White and Smith, “into an unusual hybrid: an advanced training post for both RCAF and RAF, and an operational base with a key defensive role within the Western Air Command”.
As a result, the line between trainees and operational flyers sometimes blurred: “Further complicating the picture is the fact that the station was both an airport for landplanes and a major seaplane base. The squadron roster was always changing, as was leadership. Pat Bay had 18 commanding officers.”
Young airmen such as these volunteered to serve their country, never expecting to be killed in the line of duty while training at Pat Bay. —Courtesy Tom Wagner
The BCATP training program was described as having an “exhaustive curriculum and intensive schedule of classroom and flight training carried out...at a dizzying pace” with the object of making air crew members “ready to serve overseas”. Elementary programming took approximately eight weeks, which included at least 50 hours of flying, usually begun with de Havilland Tiger Moths, Fleet Finches and Fairchild Cornells.
Successful trainees then progressed to more advanced instruction of 10 to 16 weeks, with flying time varying from 75-100 hours. Potential fighter pilots trained on single-engine North American Harvards while pilots selected for bomber, coastal and transport operations trained on twin-engine Avro Ansons, Cessna Cranes or Airspeed Oxfords.
Air observers, whose duties would be divided between navigation and aerial bombing, began with five weeks of theoretical training, followed by a 12-week course on aerial photography, reconnaissance and air navigation that included 60-70 hours of practical experience in the air. Bombing and gunnery required a further 10-week course then four more weeks at Air Navigation School before they were ready for posting to active service.
Navigators who specialized in bombing spent eight weeks at a Bombing and Gunnery School and 12 weeks at an Air Observer School to be qualified as both navigators and bomb aimers. Navigators specializing as wireless operators trained for 28 weeks at a Wireless Training School and 22 weeks at an Air Observer School.
Airmen studying to be bomb aimers spent five weeks at an Initial Training School, 8-12 weeks at an Air Observer School. Besides learning how to drop bombs accurately, they learned the map-reading and observations skills necessary for assisting navigators. Wireless operator/air gunners trained for 28 weeks at Wireless Training School and six weeks at Bombing and Gunnery School. (Straight aerial gunnery required 12 weeks of training on the ground and in the air.)
Flight engineers (1,900 of whom were trained in Canada) were added to heavy bomber crews later in the war. Besides being an aero-technician, flight engineers received enough training to be able to replace a pilot who was killed or disabled.
All of this came at a terrible cost.
Mar. 18, 1941 marked Pat Bay Station’s first recorded accident when a Royal Norwegian Air Force Northrop N-3PB stalled on take-off, crashed into the bay and caught fire. Two of its three-man crew, pilot Yens Riiser and gunner Kaare Kjos, were killed but Lt. E. Bjorneby was rescued through the heroic actions of RCAF Marine Section. personnel.
Riiser and Kjos were the first of an estimated 179 officers and airmen serving out of Patricia Bay who would die on active service without coming under enemy fire.
An Avro Anson such as this one became Pat Bay’s first casualty. —Wikipedia
80-odd years later, a stack of 8x5 file cards makes up part of the official Crash Files. Each card represents an accident, often fatal. Entries are cryptically brief or blank. Six months after the first recorded crash, a Pat Bay-based Anson I flying from Kimberly to Vancouver went down northwest of Yale. Perhaps because it was an American military aircraft its file card lists its destination, exact crash location, number of crew and believed fatalities as “unknown.”
Details are more specific for the two-winged Supermarine Stranraer amphibious reconnaissance bomber that went down with the loss of its seven-man crew at the entrance to Nanoose Bay, three months later.
Jan. 22, 1942, a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk caught fire and crashed a mile west of the station, its pilot, Sgt. Ortham, bailing out, and Squadron Leader J.A. Piddington and P/O D.G. Howie ditched their new Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber eight miles from the airport. They were among the few lucky ones. On Jan. 30, 1942, during that three-week period, a Bristol Bolingbroke bomber crashed on Cowichan Bay mudflats, killing its pilot, Sgt. A.D. Houston, RCAF. In a photograph of the crash site, only the tail fins are recognizable, indicating that the mud made for no soft landing, and that co-pilot M.R. Whyte was fortunate that he’d bailed out.
This was only the beginning. For 1942 alone the tally is 25 recorded accidents resulting in 30 airmen killed or missing.
Feb. 21–A trainee pilot from Pat Bay overshot the runway, panicked, raised his flaps too soon and stalled. He and his instructor died when Lockheed Hudson 776 then crashed into Shoal (Tsehum) Harbour.
Mar. 18–Pilot Yens Riiser and gunner Kaare Kjos died in the wreckage of their seaplane, Royal Norwegian Air Force N3PB, after it stalled shortly after take-off. Two RCAF airmen were awarded the MBE for their heroic rescue of Lieut. E. Bjorneby.
April 9–Bolingbroke 9036, a reconnaissance torpedo bomber, crashed on landing without casualty.
A Bristol Bolingbroke torpedo bomber. —Wikipedia
April 14–A two-man Westland Lysander 2 from RCAF 122 Composite Squadron went down off the south end of Portland Island with one fatality.
April 19–Sgt. D.L. Stapleton died when his P-40 fighter crashed into the sea off Galiano Island.
May 12–An RCAF P-40 plunged into Saanichton Bay, killing Sgt. Pilot R.R. Christy.
May 29–The four-man crew of a Beaufort were listed as missing after their bomber crashed into the sea after take-off.
June 6–Two airmen killed in the crash of Hudson 765 at Whatcom County airport, Wash.
July 10–For the four flight sergeants of a Handley Page Hampden torpedo bomber who crashed into the sea off Sidney after one of their engines overheated, there was rescue.
July 20–Two more sergeants, these ones assigned to 132 Fighter Squadron, made it to shore before their Harvard trainer sank off the north end of Saltspring Island.
Aug. 16–Sgt. Diodato survived the ditching of his P-40 five miles north of Active Pass.
A Curtiss P-40 fighter; several were lost while flying out of Pat Bay. —Wikipedia
Oct. 4–P/O Norris Thomas, RAF, died, alone, when his Hampden crashed and burned on Mount Tuam, the promontory that forms the south end of Saltspring Island.
Oct. 6–P-40 Kittyhawk Nos. 1092 and 728 from 132 Fighter Squadron collided in mid-air over William Head, killing pilots F/L J.D. Butler and P/O G.P. Johnson.
Oct. 25–Sgts. Orrel and Thorn were listed as missing after their low-flying Hampden caught a wing in the water during a turn and crashed into the sea off Sidney Spit.
Oct. 30–An Anson headed for Port San Juan on a navigation exercise went missing with its four-man crew.
Nov. 30–Hawker Hurricane fighter 5405 made a forced landing on Saltspring Island after its engine failed; it was salvaged and rebuilt.
Dec. 16–The loss of another Anson claimed the lives of P/Os B.J. Robertson, W.H. Harris, P.F. Biggs, J.R. Vosburg and Sgt. A.J. Doherty, RNZAF.
Dec. 17–Yet a third Anson, this time without recorded fatalities, northeast of Saltspring Island during a training flight.
Dec. 28–Again, no mention of loss of life in the crash of a Hurricane northwest of Active Pass.
Airmen examine the wreckage of yet another Pat Bay casualty. It was Tom Wagner’s father’s unhappy duty to investigate and to clean up after accidents. —Courtesy Tom Wagner
1943 got off to a somewhat slower start, February 2nd, with Hurricane 5405 landing on its nose just off the runway, but without casualty.
Mar. 14–A Hampden and one crewmen were lost in Saanich Inlet.
Mar. 16–A Bolingbroke on a training flight crashed into Mill Bay; only one body was recovered of its three-man crew.
Mar. 20–This Hurricane pilot was able to bail out before his fighter went down a few miles north of Active Pass.
Mar. 22–Two Hurricanes collided in mid-air, one going into the sea south of Sidney Island after losing its tail, the other making it back to base. A hand-written addendum adds an extra touch of pathos to this file: “Pilot (Sgt. Mark Beazer) survived crash and was seen by two crash boats and CPR ferry (S.S. Princess Alice) which asked if it was wanted in rescue. It was ordered off but neither crash boat responded either and pilot was not picked up.”
April 13–Another Hampden lost, with three fatalities, off Cowichan Head. Another hand-written entry notes: “Bombing practice flight; after dropping bomb lost control in climbing turn and crashed.” The Princess Alice was again on the scene.
April 26–Sgt. W.P. Aucoin was listed as missing after his Hurricane went down just north of Galiano Island.
May 18–Pilot Sgt. J. Birch was training in his Hampden alone when he experienced engine failure while low level flying off Stuart Island, Bute Inlet. At least he lived, being rescued by a U.S. Coast Guard cutter.
May 23–Hampden AN142 crashed and burned while trying to make an emergency landing near Pat Bay Station. Among its four fatalities was Pilot Sgt. C. Bishop, RAAF, who died of his injuries three days later.
May 30–Another mid-air collision involving Hurricanes, again in the vicinity of Sidney Island, resulting in P/O R.H. Pallen being added to the list of Pat Bay’s missing.
June 4–Pilot Officers Gordon Hugh Gould, RAF, J.G. Briggs, RAF, J.H. Schwab and F/Sgt. KC. Huard, RAF, died in the flames of their crashed Anson on Qualicum Beach when a wing failed. The granite headstone for Gould, aged 20, in Royal Oak Burial Park must have been commissioned by fellow servicemen as it reads: “Full of high purpose and the joy of life, our dear (chum) lives in our memory.”
June 4–For the first time, two aircraft in two separate incidents on the same day. In this accident, Hampden AN100 and her four-man crew were lost at sea. The anonymous recorder has added: “USN[avy] recovered u/c [undercarriage] leg, & bomb bay door near Grays Harbour, Wash., on 16/6/43 establishing a/c (aircraft) had hit water at high speed.”
June 14–Hampden AJ992 on a navigation, bombing and air-firing exercise went missing at sea with her four-man crew.
July 18–During a blind (glassy water) landing, Stranraer 916 went down in Stuart Channel, off Crofton, two of her crew being listed as missing.
Aug. 16–Another Anson trainer lost at sea but, this time, its four sergeants escaped by dinghy. Sgt. N.O. Weekes, RAAF, would be killed six weeks later in the crash of a Hampden.
Aug. 18–Hampden AN141 ditched between James and Sidney Islands; her crew of four were rescued and this aircraft was salvaged.
Sept. 17–Hampden AN146 crashed and burned when it stalled while making a landing approach at Pat Bay, killing P/Sgt. A.W.F. Fear, RAF. (*See poem, You’ll go home when you get your wings!)
Sept. 19–The ninth Hampden of the year crashed into the sea during a navigation exercise, its crew of four listed as missing. Part of the undercarriage and a wheel were recovered, nine miles from Tatoosh, near Cape Flattery.
Sept. 28–Sgt. Pilot H.D.W. McLeod, RNZAF, died when his Hampden suffered engine failure and crashed at Retreat Cove, Galiano Island.
Oct. 9–Two more known fatalities and two listed as missing after Hampden AN101 went into the sea off Stuart Island. Sgt. Weeks, who’d survived the crash of his Anson in August, was among them.
Oct. 16–Yet another of these cranky bombers lost, crashed and burned after striking a mountain near Maggie Lake on the Island’s west coast. The bodies of its four RAF and RAAF crewmen are buried on-site in a common grave.
The final toll for 1943: 23 (12 of them Hampdens) Pat Bay aircraft (one salvaged) and 39 airmen killed or missing.
1944
Jan. 13–Hampden AD767 crashed at Dinner Point, Galiano Island, the wreckage not being sighted until the next day when the body of Pilot Sgt. R. Hayes, RAF, was recovered. According to the late George Maude, this Hampden had flown at least one bombing mission over Berlin before it was shipped to Pat Bay.
Jan. 14–Sgt. Pilot H.C. Birch, RAFVR, flew Hampden AN136 into Mount Tuam, at the 1500-foot level, Saltspring Island–within 500 yards of Hampden AN 105, Oct 4, 1942.
Jan. 16–Beechcraft HB100 and its four-man RAF crew vanished, last contact being made 10 minutes south of Vancouver.
Jan. 28–Another Hampden, P1200 thought to have crashed with its three crewmen off the Washington coast. A hand-written addendum notes that icing was prevalent at the time.
Feb. 19–The second Pat Bay Beechcraft to be lost, ditched in the channel between James Island and Saanich Peninsula. Pilot Sgt. A. Hawksworth survived, as did his aircraft which was recovered for use as an instructional airframe.
Mar. 18–Three RAF crewmen aboard Dakota (DC3) FL650 vanished during a night navigation exercise. Two oxygen cylinders of a type used by this aircraft were recovered in the Pearse Island Group, northern Vancouver Island.
April 12–Beechcraft HB124 exploded and burned off Whidby Island, Wash., with the loss of its four-man RAF crew.
April 19–This is the date given on the record file but April 20 is recorded on P/O James M. Talbot’s headstone in Royal Oak Burial Park. He died when his Dakota overshot the runway at Port Hardy Airport.
April 25–A Tofino-based Lockheed Vega Ventura struck two mountain peaks before crashing and burning on Mount Bolduc. F/O’s A. Moynagh and J.E. Moyer, WO1 E.G.H. Palmer, WO2 L. Kerr, Sgt. H.A. Maki and LAC E.T. Robertson are buried on-site in a common grave. In recent years special Remembrance Day ceremonies have been held at the site of the wreck, west of Cowichan Lake.
Three of the ill-fated crew that perished on Mount Bolduc, west of Cowichan Lake. —Author’s Collection
May 2–F/O K.R. Smith was able to parachute from Hurricane 5397 before it struck Beaver Point, Salt Spring Island.
May 19–Three more RAF crewmen from Pat Bay were listed as missing after their Beechcraft vanished during a night navigation exercise between Tofino and Port Hardy.
Aug. 4–RCAF Canso 11011 capsized and sank in Satellite Channel after its wingtip floats were damaged upon landing. Its four-man crew escaped.
Aug. 23–P/O R.C. Hughes bailed out of his P-40 four miles northeast of Pat Bay and was picked up by a Canso.
Sept. 29–Sgt. G. Paterson, also of RCAF 133 Squadron, was not as fortunate when his P-40 crashed and burned off Sea Island.
Nov. 5–A low flying exercise claimed Sgt. J.G. McLean’s P-40 over Orcas Island but he lived to fly another day.
Nov. 5–This same date, Canso 11070 made a forced landing in the vicinity of Destruction Island, all eight aboard surviving.
Nov. 13–Canso 11022 plunged into Saanich Inlet; three killed.
Dec. 2–The remains of the nine men aboard RCAF Canso 11086 which struck the top of a 4000-foot mountain near Kennedy Lake are buried in a common grave at the crash site.
The toll for 1944: 18 aircraft and 39 airmen.
1945
Jan. 14–P/O D.H. Grundy was lost when his P-40 sank in the Fraser River near Ruskin.
June 1–Mosquito K111 lost an engine while landing, ended up in a field without casualty.
Feb. 12–Four killed in the loss of Canso 9701 in Saanich Inlet.
May 24–Kittyhawk 861 crashed on Mount Newton, killing pilot T. Cormie.
July 13–RCAF Liberator 11121 claims the highest death toll with its 14 fatalities, all of whom are buried on-site in two common graves on a mountainside seven miles east northeast of Bamfield.
July 17–F/O C.G. Middleton and F/Sgt. W.M. Turnbull joined the ranks of Pat Bay’s missing airmen when their Mosquito fighter-bomber crashed and burned in Sabine Channel between Texada and Lasqueti Islands.
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Only war’s end brought an end to the carnage–too late for the 179 Allied airmen recorded as killed and missing ‘in friendly skies’ while flying out of Pat Bay, 1939-1945.
NOTE: The author’s Crash Files, courtesy of the late Elwood White, appear to be incomplete as the numbers of killed and missing aircrew falls short of the 179 names inscribed on the ‘feathers’ at the Lost Airmen of the Empire memorial, Pat Bay, B.C.
(To be continued)
