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Volume 41
Number 2
October 2006
http://www.cahs.ca/torontochapter
Canadian Aviation Historical Society
Toronto Chapter Meeting
October 21, 2006
Meeting starts at 1 PM
-Under the GliderToronto Aerospace Museum, 65 Carl Hall
Road, Toronto
This meeting is jointly sponsored by CAHS
Toronto Chapter and the Toronto Aerospace
Museum- All CAHS / TAM members, guests
and the public (museum admission payable)
are welcome to attend.
Refreshments will be served
“Landing Fee” of $2.00 will be charged to
cover meeting expenses
Next Meeting November 18, 2006
Speakers - We are pleased to have Mr. Tim Whittier and
Mr. Kyle Schmidt of Messier-Dowty as speakers for this
meeting.
“Landing the Arrow + Current Projects”
Information: www.torontoaerospacemuseum.com/news/events
Bob Winson, CAHS Toronto Chapter Tel: 416-745-1462
[email protected]
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Flypast V. 41 No. 2
Last Month’s Meeting
Last Month’s Meeting
“Recollections of World War II”
Speaker: Charley Fox, DFC & Bar
Reporter: Gord McNulty
Toronto Chapter President Howard Malone
introduced Charles W. Fox, DFC & Bar, a
colourful and engaging speaker with many
compelling stories about his wartime flying
experiences. Charley, of London, Ontario, is
considered one of Canada’s more famous
military aviators and aviation personalities. He
loves to discuss his air force days and is active in
projects involving veterans. As Charley says with
a wink, “you press a button and I start off on a
tangent.”
Charley was born in February 1920 at Guelph.
Signing up with the RCAF in the spring of 1940,
he was an instructor at Dunnville from October
1941 to May 1943, when he went to an
Operational Training Unit at Bagotville, Quebec.
While there, on June 1, Charley had a narrow
escape when a Hurricane collided in mid-air with
the Harvard he was flying. Although injured, he
was able to bail out safely. In August 1943, he
went overseas and checked out on Spitfires. In
January 1944, he began his tour with 412
Squadron. Charley served continuously on ops
until January 1945. His duties included escort,
armed recce and dive bombing. On D-Day, he
flew three sorties. On 18 June, 1944, the
squadron moved to B4 airstrip in Normandy at
Beny-sur-Mer.
Charley specialized in ground attack and prided
himself on accurate marksmanship. His success
is summed up in the official commendation for
a Bar to his DFC: “This officer has led his
section against a variety of targets, often in the
face of intense anti-aircraft fire. He has
personally destroyed or damaged 22
locomotives and 34 enemy vehicles, bringing
his total to 153 vehicles destroyed or damaged.
In addition, he has destroyed at least a further
three enemy aircraft and damaged two others.
In December 1944, Flight Lieutenant Fox led
his squadron on an attack against enemy
airfields in the Munster area and personally
destroyed another enemy aircraft, bringing his
total to four. Through his quick and accurate
reporting, a further four enemy aircraft were
destroyed. Since the award of the Distinguished
Flying Cross, this officer has continued to
display outstanding skill, coolness and
determination.”
Charley ended his tour in January 1945 at
Heesch in Holland, after which he did a
six-week stint as a test pilot for #410 Repair
and Salvage Unit. He became Operations
Officer in the Intelligence Section of 126 Wing
and was among a flight of four Spitfire pilots
who flew what it considered the last operational
sortie of the war for 126 Wing, landing at 8
a.m. on May 5, 1945. In the peacetime RCAF
he served with 420 Reserve Squadron, flying
Harvards, P-51 Mustangs and T-33 Silver
Stars. He was instrumental in helping the
squadron win the MacBrien Trophy for air to
air and air to ground marksmanship. In
September 1956, Charley began a career with a
large shoe and slipper manufacturing firm. He
retired in 1998. Charley has pursued his love of
flying for many years as a member and past
president of the Canadian Harvard Aircraft
Association (CHAA), based in Tillsonburg.
Flypast V. 41 No. 2
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Today, Charley still acts as ground control for
Harvard Formation Flypasts on special occasions
for the CHAA. He also does colour
commentaries, with his trademark enthusiasm
and knowledge, at airshows throughout Canada
and the United States.
Charley brought an impressive display of photos,
artwork and documentation to bolster his
presentation. He began by saying that he didn’t
talk about the war for about 40 years, just as a
number of veterans preferred not to discuss their
experiences. Displaying a photo of four RCAF
aircrew from Guelph including himself, taken at
Bournemouth in October 1943, Charley noted
that two came home from the war and two
didn’t. Andy Howden took off in a Mosquito on
the night of April 7, 1944 with his navigator.
They were never seen again. Sandy Borland,
who had lived just around the corner from
Charley, was shot down Dec. 25, 1944, in a
sortie by an unmarked P-47 and killed. Only the
day before, on Dec. 25, Sandy’s sister, Jean --who served as a nurse in the Army Air Corps --married Sandy’s Flight Commander in 416 Sqdn.
in a ceremony at Brussels, Belgium. Charley
noted that towards the end of the war, the
Germans recovered Allied aircraft and flew them
again. “The only real dogfight that I had was
with an unmarked Spitfire flown by a German,”
Charley recalled. The Germans would fly B-17s,
have them join up with crippled bombers coming
home, then shoot them down. Lancasters would
be used that way as well. Hitler issued an edict
that if anyone bailed out over Europe, they
would not be allowed to reach the ground alive.
His rationale was that if any Allied aircrew
returned to their units, they would be flying
against Germany again.
When Charley returned to Canada in 1945, he
went into retailing while he contemplated his
options in the air force. He recalled a difficult
moment at the store in Guelph where he worked
when Andy Howden’s mother came in. She
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started crying, grabbed Charley by the
shoulders and started shaking him back and
forth. “Why my Andy and not you?,” Charley
recalled her saying. “She was pounding me on
the chest and saying ‘Why my Andy and not
you?’ Charley continued: “All I could do was
hold her and say, ‘Mrs. Howden, I don’t know
why not me.” Charley mentioned that he’s
working on a book, to be titled Why Not Me,
containing many stories about the men he flew
with. He explained that many veterans didn’t
talk about the war because they felt guilty about
surviving combat while their friends didn’t.
“Mrs. Howden had every right to feel that
way,” he said. Charley added that after
reviewing his logbook, he realized that many
events could have been disastrous for him.
As for his mid-air collision in the Harvard at
Bagotville on June 1, 1943, Charley was
returning to base, leading two other Harvards.
There were also three Hurricanes in the vicinity.
The two different types of aircraft were not
supposed to be mixed. When he noticed the
Hurricanes, Charley said he saw the wing of the
leading aircraft drop, as if the pilot was about
to simulate an attack. “It turned out that he
had been partying the night before,” Charley
said. “He came down and went below. As he
did that, I called a right to port to let him know
that I had spotted him. Well, he came up from
underneath and the nose of his aircraft hit mine,
tore out the engine and everything in front of
the fire wall. The collision took off the left wing
and the tailplane of his airplane. He spun and
went in. He was killed. I was knocked out, but
came to. Now I had a glider, but it wouldn’t
glide,” Charley continued in matter-of-fact
style. “I bailed out and my Harvard fluttered
down into the bush at Bagotville.” Charley
displayed a photo of the wreckage of his
Harvard that he received just last year.
Among the other vivid memories Charley
recalled was the dedication shown by Arthur
Flypast V. 41 No. 2
Bishop, son of Canada’s most famous First
World War fighter pilot, Billy Bishop, in coping
with the pressure of continuing the Bishop
legacy. Charley met Arthur while the young
airman was serving with 401 Squadron at Biggin
Hill. At the time, Charley considered himself to
be a mature pilot, an ex-instructor, age 24,
married with one son who had been born shortly
after he went overseas. There was a memorable
encounter when he came across the sight of
Arthur leaning against the wall of a Quonset hut,
crying. When Charley asked him what was
wrong, Arthur replied: “Charley, I’m not afraid
to die. I’m afraid to fly.” As Charley said, “Can
you imagine the pressure on that young man
from the time he enrolled in elementary school?”
Charley felt at home as a pilot from the time he
went on his first flight in January, 1941. In
comparison, Arthur was pushed through flying
training as “Billy Bishop’s son,” struggled to
earn the wings pinned on him by his famous
father, and went overseas as a Spitfire pilot even
though he was afraid to fly. “Arthur Bishop
completed his 100 trips, which was a tour on the
Spitfire, and that took guts,” Charley said. “I like
to pass that story on to young students.”
Charley also paid tribute to the dedication of the
groundcrew. He displayed a photo taken at
Beny-sur-Mer in 1944 showing him with two of
his groundcrew --- Danny Daniels, who looked
after the engine, and Monty Montgomery who
looked after the rest of the aircraft except the
radio and the armament. The groundcrew and
administrative personnel served a three-year tour
of duty overseas. Charley knew that his
groundcrew’s schedule time for repatriation to
Canada was coming up. So he wrote to his wife
back in Guelph and told her to send over two
letters with their names inscribed on them.
“When the letters came, I told them, ‘Guys, I
have a couple of letters for you. I have never had
to worry about what shape my aircraft would be
in. I knew it would be the best shape that you
fellows could make it.” Lo and behold, when
Charley gave the crewmen the letters, they
replied almost in unison that they would not
return to Canada until Charley had finished his
tour of duty. “They stayed for seven long
months until January 1945 before they called it
a day overseas.” Charley enjoyed reconnecting
with Danny and his wife in Kelowna, B.C. 60
years later.
The Great Escape of Allied PoWs from Stalag
Luft III in Sagan, Germany --- not too far from
Berlin --- has been of considerable interest of
Charley. The man in charge of constructing the
escape tunnels was Wally Floody. Shot down in
the fall of 1941, Flight Lieutenant Floody used
his knowledge of mining (gained in northern
Ontario) to mastermind the tunnelling. Charley
recalled meeting Wally in October, 1940, on a
train going to Brandon, Manitoba in a group for
instruction under the BCATP. Six months and
two weeks later, the recruits were qualified
pilots with their wings. They had about 110 to
120 hours. The whole group, including Wally,
went overseas.
Charley recommended the book, The Tunnel
King: The True Story of Wally Floody and the
Great Escape, by Barbara Hehner (published by
HarperCollins, 2004, $9.99), describing the
heroic story and Wally’s role in it. Charley
brought a print back from Poland, where Stalag
Luft III is located today, showing the layout of
the tunnel. The tunnel was 30 feet down and
348 feet long. It came up about 30 feet of the
trees. The PoWs worked on three tunnels at a
time, and proceeded at a rate of 10 feet a day,
round the clock 24 hours a day. Charley
emphasized the incredibly small working area:
the tunnel was only two feet wide and two feet
high. The PoWs had to lie on their side while
they were tunnelling. They used milk tins to
provide air from the surface and tapped into the
camp electricity to run lights through the
tunnel. When the PoWs decided to break out,
Flypast V. 41 No. 2
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those who had worked on the tunnel would be
first. They were hoping to get 200 prisoners out,
enough to create chaos for the Germans when
they redeployed defence resources to catch the
escapees. In fact, that is what happened. Hitler
assigned 70,000 troops to hunt for the escapees.
The PoWs faced many obstacles. It had snowed
two days before the escape, and the door they
planned to use had frozen solid. It took them 90
minutes to get the door open. They had to keep
their heads down and didn’t know that they were
short of the trees by 30 feet. Guards and
searchlights were everywhere, so they slowed
down even more. Also, they had a cave-in, and
three guys became totally unnerved by the
claustrophobia and the darkness. They had to be
subdued and taken out. Then the Germans cut
off all the power in the camp, depriving the
PoWs of any light whatever. Nonetheless, 76
men eventually got out. Another four almost
escaped but were caught as they running for the
trees. Only three --- two Norwegians and a
Dutchman --- made it to England, while the rest
were caught within a week. Hitler was so
incensed that he wanted to execute every single
man. Sadly, in the end, 50 were executed. “It is
a fascinating story of commitment,” Charley
said. “Every one of those PoWs is an unsung
hero. If you were a PoW, you were supposed to
continue to try to escape and get back to your
base and this is what they did. They fought the
war in the only way they could.”
Charley also discussed his account of the attack
on Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in Normandy
on July 17, 1944. He said he had never wanted
to talk about this issue, which has involved some
controversy as to who should be credited for it.
Charley said that he and an American pilot, who
was his number two, took off in their Spitfires
from 412 Sqdn. looking for targets of
opportunity. Charley said he saw a big, black
German staff car approaching and opened fire on
it. He had no idea who was in the car. It turned
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out to be none other than a party of
high-ranking German officers including Field
Marshal Erwin Rommel, who was seriously
wounded in the attack. “I never wanted to do
anything about this story because Rommel was
a general’s general … a leader of men.” While
Charley would have preferred to keep quiet
about the episode, with all of its controversy,
the Ottawa Citizen published a story outlining
Charley’s role after he was made honorary
colonel of the present-day 412 VIP Sqdn. based
in Ottawa. Major-General Richard Rohmer also
has an account of the attack on Rommel’s car,
which Richard outlined in the December 2005
meeting of the Toronto Chapter. “He has a
story and I have mine, and I’ll leave it at that,”
Charley said.
Charley’s business card features an illustration
of “The Last Patrol” as rendered by artist Lance
Russwurm. On May 5, 1945, Charley was one
of the four Canadian Spitfire pilots who flew
what was almost certainly the last sortie of the
war. On May 4, Wing Commander Geof
Northcott learned that hostilities were to cease
at 0800 hours on May 5. He decided the 126
Wing Tactical Airforce should put up one last
flight. At 6:30 a.m. Charley took off in his Mk
IX from 412 Sqdn. He flew No. 4 with
Northcott, in a Mk IX, from 401 Sqdn., as No.
1; S/L Bill Klersey as No. 2 in a Mk IX of 401
Sqdn., and S/L Don ‘Chunky’ Gordon as No. 3
in a Spit XIV of 402 Sqdn. They looked
everywhere for the Germans but didn’t find any
during the 90-minute sortie.
Charley also described his recollections of
flying with George ‘Buzz’ Beurling, Canada’s
greatest ace of 1939-45. He served in
Beurling’s flight at Biggin Hill in January, 1944.
“To fly with Buzz Beurling was the most
comforting thing you could do. He was a
fabulous pilot. His eyesight was so phenomenal
that he knew everything that was happening
around him.” Beurling would spend hours
Flypast V. 41 No. 2
helping his fellow pilots become better
marksmen. “He could party with the best of
them, but he never took a drink and never
smoked, because that would affect his eyesight.”
Charley added that Beurling made a point of
shooting at the wing roots of the aircraft that he
was firing upon and he rarely used more than
five cannon shells because of his accuracy.
The story of the famous poem High Flight,
penned by 19-year-old Pilot Officer John
Gillespie Magee, Jr., was also recalled by
Charley, partly because of the 412 Sqdn.
connection. Magee was born of missionary
parents in China in 1922. His father was
American, his mother was British. In 1931, at
nine years of age, John was taken by his mother
along with his younger brother back to England
to his maternal grandmother’s house. In school,
he specialized in writing. When he was 17, he
went to the U.S., attending a private school in
New York where his father’s sister lived. In the
summer of 1940, he got a scholarship to Yale in
English and poetry. The Battle of Britain had
erupted, and bombs were dropping in east
London where his grandmother lived. So he
enrolled in the RCAF, took his elementary flying
training at St. Catharines, then got his wings in
Ottawa. Magee went overseas, serving in 412
Sqdn. On Sept. 3, 1941, he was flying at 30,000
feet when he was inspired to write the words of
High Flight. He wrote a letter home to his
parents in Washington, D.C. and on the back of
it he had written the poem. He called it just a
“little ditty.” Some ditty! Tragically, on Dec. 10,
1941, he was descending through clouds when
his Spitfire collided with an Oxford. Both pilots
were killed.
Expanding on the wartime service of the
Americans, Charley noted that his first flight, 5
Jan. 1941, at Mount Hope, took place under the
instruction of “an American, Mr. Brown.” He
added that without the participation of the
American volunteers who came to Canada, the
BCATP would not have started as well as it
did. In all, 8,800 American volunteers joined
the RCAF. After the attack on Pearl Harbor,
2,200 returned to join the American Air Corps.
However, 6,600 stayed in the RCAF until the
end of the war.
Charley also recalled the remarkable story of
“Cap” Foster, of Grimsby, Ont. “Cap” was an
instructor at Dunnville. He taught by example,
stressing that fighter pilots should be able to fly
just as well when upside down. Cap’s students
included Bill Olmsted, the Spitfire pilot who
flew more than 500 sorties and authored the
book Blue Skies in 1987. Charley mentioned
that Cap and Bill actually looped the Rainbow
Bridge. Fortunately they were never charged
for the stunt because observers were able to
identify only two of the four numbers on the
aircraft. Charley said that the markings were
later changed to include two large numbers only
“and that spoiled all the fun.” Cap went
overseas, flew with 403 and 416 squadrons, and
was awarded the DFC. But when he returned
home to Grimsby and left the air force, he
couldn’t get a job. “Cap Foster’s grandfather
was a full-blooded Mohawk. Suddenly, Cap
was treated as a half-breed again. In the air
force, he was an officer and a gentleman,
probably our best aerobatic pilot, one of our
best athletes at Dunnville … and he couldn’t
get a job,” Charley recalled with dismay.
Cap returned to the air force during the Korean
War and became an instructor again. Once,
while returning to base at Gimli, Manitoba, Cap
had a close call when he was flying alone.
Another instructor and a student flying
formation with Cap at altitude noticed that Cap
had slumped over. The instructor called Cap
and managed to awaken him when they were
below 10,000 feet, then guided him to a safe
landing. Cap was taken by ambulance to
hospital, where it was learned that he should
never have been a pilot --- he had epilepsy. Cap
Flypast V. 41 No. 2
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stayed in the air force, serving in administration.
He raised three children. One became a doctor
and the other two became lawyers.
Charley answered lots of questions from the
audience. He said that fighter pilots, when in air
combat, faced “one aircraft shooting at them at
a time, and that would be it, normally.” But in
flying ground attack at prime targets like the
buzz bomb sites, pilots
encountered
multi-faceted,
sometimes
unpredictable
resistance from anti-aircraft fire. Charley said
none of the pilots enjoyed ground attack. In
attacking trains for example, pilots never knew
when they might come under fire from armed
box cars equipped with two 40 mm guns on each
car. “I always took the engine,” Charley said.
“It could be a little bit dicey. Charley Fox
probably went through more Spitfires than most
people.” Charley paid credit to the Typhoon
pilots, describing them as unsung heroes. “They
had to fly straight and level for about 10 seconds
when they were releasing their rockets. They
suffered 50 per cent casualties because they
were very vulnerable.” Charley’s favourite
combat fighter was the Spitfire. “For close
combat, I would want my Spitfire. You had a
safety factor. You could go into a steep climbing
turn and nothing could stick with you.”
Howard Malone expressed thanks on behalf of
the chapter to Charley for sharing his memories
in an impressive, thoughtful talk. He presented
Charley with a gift in appreciation. Some of
Charley’s stories can be found on
www.spitcrazy.com, website for the Spitfire
Emporium in Kitchener. He can be reached via
e-mail at [email protected]. His address is
Apt. 1312, 585 Proudfoot Lane, London, ON
N6H 4R6.
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Flypast V. 41 No. 2
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Flypast V. 41 No. 2
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