Here is Robin's uncle Bill getting his wings at St Hubert. The officer pinning them on his uniform was his father, Charlie. The date is June 11, 1943. He was a natural pilot being a world class gymnast. One of his party tricks was to walk down a flight of stairs on his hands!
Bill enlisted in July 1942. For a while he was on the west coast. Bill and his squadron was shipped to England in October 1943 where they were based at Digby - The oldest RAF station in England - and where they trained as fighter bombers. They moved to Wittering for a few days in December 1943 and the onto Ayr.
Their job was to patrol France and shoot up key installations, trains and convoys. 438 became part of 143 Wing RCAF.
By 1944, the all-Canadian 143 Wing comprised 438, 439 and 440 Squadrons, flying Typhoons. Each aircraft carried two 1000 pound bombs and four 20mm cannons. This was very dangerous work. During the Normandy invasion period, 151 Typhoons pilots were killed from 450 Typhoons operating during this time. There is a monument to their honor at Villous Borage in Normandy, France. Twenty of these pilots were from the Canadian wing.
Bill is 4th from the left in the middle - we know nothing about his service - but the picture suggests that he had a lot of influence in the squadron. He looks very different from the young man getting his wings from his dad. At end of 1943, they moved up to Ayr in Scotland to train on a new plane.
In January of 1944, the squadron was scheduled to replace the familiar and stable Hurricane with a new plane - the Typhoon.
It was a very challenging plane to fly. Bill was one of the first in his squadron to take it up. Something happened and he was killed. He is buried in a graveyard in Ayr that has men from both wars. He was 20.
Here is my favorite picture of him looking so calm and competent.
Shortly after his death, his parents received a rude letter saying that Bill had not yet presented himself as ordered to the conscription board. Robin's grandfather wrote a dignified letter in return informing them that his son had already died for his country. Charlie and Thea never really recovered from Bill's death.
Here is the poem that sums up how many young men like Bill felt about flying:
"High Flight"
"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things
you have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
high in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
my eager craft thro' footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
where never lark, nor even eagle flew.
And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
the high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
put out my hand, and touched the face of God".
: Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee
Here is a video simulation of a Typhoon attack from 438 Squadron
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