The Battle of Britain 1940
Alberta Aces

    The air battle of Britain held incredible significance in that it prevented any possibility of an invasion of the UK by German forces. All of the men who formed the initial draft of personnel to Medicine Hat had some experience of what it was like to be under fire. One of the famous RAF pilots was legless, Douglas Bader. He didn't fly in the battle over France however about 80 Canadian pilots in the RAF, including two from Alberta fought over France and Dunkirk. Hiram Peter 'Cowboy' Blatchford was the son of the mayor Edmonton. He made the first kill by a Canadian in the Second World War when as part of a flight of three Spitfires he shot down a Heinkell 111 on October 17, 1939. After the Allied evacuation at Dunkirk Blatchford would become an Ace during the Battle of Britain where while now flying Hurricanes with # 17 Squadron he destroyed a total of five enemy aircraft. For his efforts he received a Distinguished Flying Cross. 
    William 'Willie' Lidstone McKnight was a Flying Officer who would earn the DFC and Bar while flying with the RAF. Like Blatchford, McKnight became an Ace. Within five days he shot down ten enemy planes over Dunkirk. Before his death in January 1941 he had sixteen and one half enemy aircraft credited to his score. Following is a list of victories: May 29, 1940 shot down 2 ME-109's and 1 DO-17; May 30, 1940 shot down 2 ME-109s; June 1, 1940 shot down 4 Stuka dive bombers: August 30, 1940 shot down 3 enemy bombers; September 8 shot down 2 ME-109's; September 18, 1940 shot down 1 and half ME-109s; October 17, 1940 shot down 1 ME-109.
    Quite a number of battle tested, battle weary Canadians who had survived the fighting over France and the Channel were assigned to Douglas Bader who met his rumpled, rebellious crew, reluctant to submit to authority and leery of having a Commanding Officer with no legs. Bader stomped out to a Hurricane, humped himself into the cockpit then took off for a half hour of aerobatics and low flying to show he could fly a fighter aircraft. The Canadians took grudging notice. When Bader assembled his motley crew the next day he asked them about their relaxed even slovenly appearance. They told him they had escaped France with what they wore. Bader directed them to his tailor in nearby Norwich and had them properly kitted up with him standing as guarantee to their line of credit. Bader also passed out some of his own shirts and ties to tide them over until their new proper kit arrived. He soon won their confidence and introduced them to his own new theory of fighter tactics which were to prove successful.
    Bader flew with Albertans Blatchford and McKnight and supplies a brief account of the death of McKnight in his book 'Reach for the Sky'.

Rhodes - 1941 The Beginnings

"A Loud bang Over Holsom"

   Let us return to John Rhodes and one of his experiences in a Harvard. 'Whilst doing aerobatics with a pupil on a Harvard over Holsom the pupil asked how one went into an approach to dive bomb a target. I rolled the Harvard onto its back and pulled the stick back until the plane was in a vertical dive. Dive bombers have air brakes, the Harvard did not and within seconds the revs were of the clock and the propeller giving a tortured scream. I closed the throttle and pulled out rather quickly causing a black out with the increased G force and at that point there was a loud BANG followed immediately by a cloud of dust and a voice shouting 'shall we bale out sir?'
    She was coming up onto a level fight and the revs came back to normal but there was an awful lot of light in the cockpit due to the entire side panel for the length of the plane having pulled. I said 'No she's all right now' but I was not sure how she would behave at slow landing speeds as that sort of thing can effect the aerodynamic stability of a plane.
    I slowed her down to landing approach speed and she flew all right so next I lowered the wheels and then the flaps and she was still OK. I circled down from 5,000 feet around the field and came to land a little faster than normal and she sat down without any problems, but there was a little crowd of spectators gathered to see the fun as they had heard the engine noise and the bang, and then seen a large object fluttering towards the ground and thought someone had bailed out. It was of course the missing part of my plane.

L-R: H.R.H. The Duke of Kent, Group Captain A. ap Ellis; August 14, 1941 official visit.

His Royal Highness arrived at Medicine Hat at 1000 hours and was received at the CPR Station by the Mayor Medicine Hat, Hector Lang, Esg. and the Commanding Officer of No. 34 SFTS Group Captain A. ap Ellis, CBE. After a Civic reception at the Town Hall His Royal Highness proceeded to No. 34 SFTS and inspected a Guard of Honour of a hundred airmen, commanded by F/Lt. A.C.L. Ackroyd-Stuart. His Royal Highness made a very thorough inspection of the Guard, speaking to approximately every fourth man. He was then conducted to Station Sick Quarters to commence his tour of inspection of the camp, which included practically every building.
    During His Royal Highness's tour he spoke to numerous airmen and was gracious enough to pose for various airmen to take photographs. On completion of the tour he took lunch at the Officers' Mess where further presentations took place of officers who had not previously been presented. The visit terminated at 1400 hours when His Royal Highness left by air for Moose Jaw.
    Sadly within a year His Royal Highness would die in Scotland. The Duke of Kent was killed while a passenger in a 228 Squadron Short Sunderland W4026/M when it hit high ground near Dunbeath on 25.08.1942. It was en-route to Iceland from Invergordon and 14 people were killed but the tail gunner survived. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists the following information; In Memory of George Edward Alexander Edmund Windsor GCMG, GCVO, KG. KT. Air Commodore Royal Air Force (Auxiliary Air Force) who died on Tuesday 25th August 1942 Age 39. Duke of Kent, Third son of His Majesty King George V and Her Majesty Queen Mary; Born December 20, 1902 at York Cottage, Sandringham, Norfolk, England. Father King George V, Mother Queen Mary of Teck. Married November 29, 1934 in Westminster Abbey, husband of H.R.H. The Duchess of Kent. Cemetery: Frogmore Royal Burial Ground, Berkshire, United Kingdom.

    February 28 was a Sunday and after church services in the station chapel as conducted by the Reverend Canon Butcher of St. Barnabas, 34 SFTS entertained a very special visitor. Flying Officer George Beurling, DSO, DFC, DFM and Bar. 'Buzz' was acknowledged as being a bona fide war Ace. The station diary reported, the Canadian Air Ace, gave a very interesting talk to the officers and men and air cadets.
Most Canadians have no knowledge of this man who was one of our Second World War aces. George Frederick 'Buzz' Beurling was born in Verdun, Quebec in 1921. He took his first flight at age 9 at LaSalle Road airport Verdun. He was only interested in flying; books of WW1 aces, tactics and aerial battles. He took the controls of an airplane at age 12...

John Rhodes wrote, I was sent to be a member of a three man Court of Inquiry on the prairie between Calgary and Edmonton, I believe. An Anson from another training school had made a forced landing at this tiny hamlet, and another plane had been sent out with a mechanic and replacement battery. By the time it was fixed the instructor and pupil had been entertained and boarded by the local inhabitants with whom they had made friends. After taking off the instructor, to say farewell, beat up the village by diving low over it, too low as it happened, and his tailwheel went through the roof of the local store. The result of this can be imagined, it was as though a giant hand had smacked his tail from underneath, tipping the nose into the ground, and before he could recover, the plane crashed on the railway line and burned out killing instructor, pupil and unfortunate mechanic. We had to examine officially, in the neighboring larger town about 25 miles away, the charred corpses, and I remember the mortician putting his hand on the charred flesh saying 'Such a shame. Such fine young fellas', then finding him sitting next to me in the drug store eating his sandwiches with the black still on them. our three man Inquiry took reams of evidence from local eye witnesses who saw the crash. The Anson crash at Rose Lynn was certainly the one to which I was sent as part of the Court of Inquiry. I remember the visit to the funeral parlour and also, clearly the grain elevators and the friendly operator. I also still see clearly in my memory the hold in the edge of the building roof an exact cut out of the tail wheel assembly.

Hurricane

THE HOUSEWIFE'S DREAM

My Saucepans have all been surrendered,
The teapot is gone from the hob,
The colander's leaving the cabbage
For a very much different job.
So now, when I hear on the wireless
Of Hurricanes showing their mettle,
I see, in a vision before me,
A Dornier being chased by my kettle.

    Elsie Cawser, Staffordshire.

	CPR platform, Medicine Hat, 1941. L-R;F/O A.F.M. Maclean, P/O. A.A. Purkiss-Ginn, P/O R.E. Sears. Others Unknown
All 3 flying instructors would die in training accidents during 1941

    About the third week of February I was called to the C.O.'s office and informed that my posting had come through to go to Canada. When Sir?, Tomorrow so you'd better get your things together and you are not to tell anyone where you are going. Not even your family. You have a multi engined instructors category and  you will be flying twins.
    I duly got my orders and train warrant and left for No. 2 P.D.C. Wilmslow on February 24, 1941 getting there on 25 and was there for three days. After getting all our vaccines and inoculations again we left for the Clyde and boarded the Polish ship Jan Batory which had escaped from Poland when the Germans invaded. On board we waited for the convoy to form up and were delighted with our sleeping quarters and excellent peace time food. Of course this was explained by the fact that she provisioned each time on the other side of the Atlantic. She was about 5000 tons and had one anti-aircraft gun mounted on her deck.
    Here is what John Rhodes remembers of the Atlantic crossing. A very severe storm on our second night out hit us as we entered the North Atlantic. There was a well stocked bar being well patronized by the RAF aircrew as the Army types and ground crews on board had retired to their bunks being very sea sick. This left more space for us. There was a lot of beer being spilt with the rough motion of the ship making the floor rather wet when suddenly we were hit by a big one. All the customers were swept off their feet and a piano broke loose from its holdings and we all careened across to the opposite side of the saloon flat on our backs and hit the side of the ship in company with the piano. Massive breakages in the bar of course.
    I also remember news that one the German pocket battleships was loose in the Atlantic looking for shipping and this caused some dismay. The sight of the old battleship Ramilles coming out of the fog and taking station ahead of us made us feel a lot better.
    One day the ship shook with an explosion during our lunch. We found out that it was the Polish crew that had fired its one gun at an RAF Sunderland Flying boat which had come out from Canada's east coast to make sure we were all right.

Golf Sticks for use on prairie 'wool' and oiled 'greens'

    And now we turn to interesting story of the youngest man to become a pilot in the RAF. He received part of his training at 34 SFTS Medicine Hat during 1941 and one of his flight instructors was Reg Nutter. The young man was Thomas Dobney. He has found his way into the Guiness Book of Records. 'The youngest age at which anyone has ever qualified as a military pilot is 15 years 5 months in the case of Sergeant Thomas Dobney, born 6 May 1926 of the RAF.'
    At age 14 Tom was in the Lower Sixth of King Edward V1's Grammar School in Nuneaton Warwickshire. In summer of 1940 he watched the progress of the Battle of Britain and was enticed by the poster, 'Fly with the RAF!' he tried to enlist on a dare. At the recruiting office he picked up pamphlets, completed the form that night - yes he had matriculated but omitted to mention that as a bright pupil he had passed the exams two years earlier than normal. In the space for his date of birth he wrote 6 May 1922, adding 4 years to his age. He posted the forms. Two weeks later came a reply accepting him for pilot training provided he passed an interview and medical board at a church hall in Coventry. He told his Mother he was out walking for the day. The medical officer ragged him about his youthful appearance but passed him fit for service. During the interview by the selection board he was asked how old are you? by a Squadron Leader. He replied 18, sir. 
    Really? Where's your birth certificate, lad? Tom looked the officer in the eyes and said, You already have it sir, I posted it off with my application form. The squadron leader sorted through papers on his desk and replied "Doesn't appear to be here. Still I expect it'll turn up later." The overworked officer had swallowed the lie, even seemed faintly embarrassed that he might have lost the document, looked up, smiled and said, 'Welcome to the RAF."
    Dobney was aged 14 years and 3 months! He still had to break the news to his Mother. She and his Father were separated and if Tom left she would be on her own. Tom said 'I simply bullied her into accepting what I wanted, she didn't like it but I argued and sulked until in the end she threw up her hands and gave in. So far as she was concerned, I was joining as groundcrew. She would certainly have put her foot down and stopped me on the spot had she known I was going to train as a pilot.'
    In October 1940 she kissed him and gave him half a crown to buy sweets for the train journey to RAF Cardington, near Bedford. No. 1197690 Aircraftman Second Class Dobney, T. walked into the former airship base and into a new, bewildering, exciting adult world.