Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 81 continued ... and asked whether my ground crew included armourers. When I answered yes he said they will man the guns. My RAF crew took over this duty. We continued to Phillippeville without incident until we arrived and were disembarking. As we were leaving the ship the port was bombed by three enemy Junkers JU 88’s. My RAF crew was met by an Irish Guard Major in full dress uniform who greeted us saying “form up and march smartly. We must make a good impression passing through the city and up the hill to the French Barracks”. The Sobieski’s Navigation Log Book recorded we had sailed 2708 Nautical Miles in 228 hours. Our Squadron’s ground equipment which had arrived previously and been stored undercover in a nearby forest was retrieved and transported to a grass field near Taher, Algeria. The field had a pierced steel planking runway. The squadron commenced operations on 22 December 1942 patrolling convoys in the Bougie Harbour area. There was little enemy action. F/L Cockrane shot down an Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero medium bomber on 22nd January. I was detached with the Squadron’s “A” Flight to Setif in Northeastern Algeria in February 1943 where we continued convoy protection patrols. Sgt. Talkin went missing from a patrol on March 11. F/L Cockrane was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross on March 28th and went missing from a patrol on March 31st. F/o Metzler was shot down by the US Navy and landed safely. F/O Thompson and F/O Johnson each shot down a Heinkel 111 bomber. “A” Flight returned to Taher on April 4th. On April 29th I flew one of three Spitfire Vc aeroplanes issued to No. 87 Squadron. We did not have good fortune with these aircraft. The Squadron Commander when on an approach to landing flew into an unmarked wire cable causing the Spitfire to crash. He was not injured. Warrant Officer Wheatley while flying at high altitude had the Spitfire’s engine malfunction. He landed safely. On 21 May 1943 No. 87 Squadron moved to Tingley near Bone, Algeria. On June 19th during my fourth “Scramble” take off in Spitfire JK459 its engine failed causing it to crash and become a complete write off. In June 1943 I was promoted to Flying Officer rank and in July went with a detachment of the Squadron to Monastir near Sousse, Tunisia to protect convoys and the Sousse and Sfax harbours. While there on patrol steeply descending from high altitude and subsequently undergoing severe pain in my right ear I was admitted to No. 1 Royal Air Force Hospital, Carthage (Tunisia). I returned to the Squadron and at the end of July 1943 the Squadron moved to La Sebala 1, an airfield near Tunis. This was the end of my flying with No. 87 Squadron in North Africa. I was transferred back to England to report to Royal Air Force Fighter Command Headquarters at RAF Bentley Priory, a non-flying Royal Air Force station near Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow. I was given a period of leave and then to report to an RAF embarkation station and transfer to No. 36 Operational Training Unit, Greenwood, Nova Scotia Canada, arriving there 14January 1944. From January through April I was given conversion training to fly Mosquito aircraft. As I completed training it was announced that No. 36 Operational Training Unit, Royal Air Force Greenwood would close and all RAF personal return to England. I was transferred back to the Royal Canadian Air Force and moved to No. 1 Operational Training Unit, RCAF Bagotville, Quebec, as the unit’s maintenance unit Test Pilot. While testing Hurricane aircraft at Bagotville I experienced two crash landings. One was a minor wheels up landing. The other the result of engine failure immediately after take off and over the outskirt area of the city of Chicoutimi, Quebec. I was faced with trying not to come down on a street, house, building or populated area. Fortunately there were two small and adjacent vacant fields both surrounded by wire fencing. I was able to land and going through all four rows of fencing bringing the aircraft to a halt without hurting anyone or hitting any structure. While employed as test pilot at Bagotville I flew 279 aircraft maintenance test flights and 13 aircraft Acceptance checks. continued ...
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