Joey Jacobson's War
Page 44
10 F/O Arthur John Benning Monk, of Winnipeg, was killed on 11 December during a mine-laying operation off Brest. He was posted to 144 Squadron, another 5 Group Hampden squadron, in July 1941. Aged twenty-nine, he has no known grave and is commemorated at Runnymede. F/Sgt. Donald Louden Henderson, of Winnipeg, was reported missing on 11 January from operations on Wilhelmshaven. He had volunteered to take the place of an air observer who was ill that night. Henderson was posted to 408 Squadron, an early RCAF Hampden squadron then still attached to 5 Group, in July 1941. Aged twenty-eight, he has no known grave and is commemorated at Runnymede. Both had been Joe’s classmates during their air observer training in Canada.
11 Joe seems to have heard that Moe Usher, then serving in 35 Squadron, was reported missing, but this proved to be incorrect.
Chapter 29: 28 January 1942
1 Joe is referring to Percy’s letter of 29 December, the last he would receive. F/Sgt. H. I. Popay and F/Sgt. D. A. Hammatt were awarded bars to their DFMs in January.
2 When Joe wrote this letter, no news of Roger’s fate had yet reached the squadron. In fact, his aircraft had been hit by flak around midnight of the 15th and crashed in Denmark, where all four of the crew were captured and imprisoned for the remainder of the war. In 1944, Réal Rousseau relied on this letter to pursue inquiries into the status of his brother’s commission while he was still in Stalag Luft 4.
3 TNA, AIR 14/2142, Intelligence Watch Diary, 5 Group, vol. IV, 28 January 1942. The following morning at 0530, 5 Group reported to Bomber Command: “Frontal belt 9/10 cu tops 7000' with thin cloud up to 20,000'. Snow not of sufficient depth to obscure hedges.” Why Bomber Command HQ wanted this information, and what was done with it, is not disclosed in the record.
4 Patrick, of Stettler, Alberta, is buried at Great Bircham Cemetery, Norfolk.
5 TNA, AIR 27/832, 106 Squadron Operations Record Book, 28 January 1941.
6 That is what Lionel Silver, by then an observer with a heavy bomber squadron in Yorkshire, speculated when he wrote to Percy and May on 15 February after hearing that Joe had gone missing: “Anti-aircraft fire may have affected their engines, depleted their petrol supply or otherwise damaged the aircraft so that it would not be possible for them to keep aloft until they got back to England.” As Joe’s target was well inside Germany, Lionel continued, he had a better chance of landing safely and being taken prisoner of war. If so, he could be back in England before the war is over, as a friend of Lionel’s who had failed to return from an operation four months previously now was.
Part Five: Failed to Return
Chapter 30: Requiem
1 Subsequently archived (DHH, 181.009 (D283), Censored letters), including Joe’s letter of 22 July 1941.
2 Undated (first page missing), probably written in early April.
3 The Memorial Cross, also known as the Silver Cross, was awarded to the mothers or wives of servicemen who died in active duty.
4 Fred Haiblen lived with the Jacobsons for nearly two years while studying, and later moved to the United States. I am grateful to Janice Rosen and Janet Kwass for this information.
5 Joe’s final daily diary, covering the period 18–27 January, and his last notebook of conversations with Monty and the outline of their proposed play, also with entries up to 27 January, must have been with his kit in barracks. Perhaps they were regarded as innocuous, as evidently they were released after the routine Air Ministry inspection along with the remainder of his belongings to Dan Kostoris as his designated next of kin. These items would also have been included in the bundle that Dan gave to Gerald to take home.
6 This would be the Missing Research and Enquiries Unit established by the RAF at war’s end to locate and identify airmen lost over enemy territory.
Chapter 31: Holland
1 The interviews cited were conducted by Jan Geerdinck, AVOG Crash Museum, Leivelde, between 1971 and 2006, unless otherwise indicated.
2 Process-verbaal (report by Th. Wegman, Head of Air Protection), 30 January 1942, reproduced in G. Nijs, “Neergestorte Engelse bombenwerper in de Besselinkschans 28 Januari 1942” [Crashed English bomber in the Besselinkschans], in De Lichte Voorde 31 (1995): 24–25.
3 Quoted in ibid., 31:26, translated by Sietze Praamsma.
4 Wim Rhebergen interview, television documentary broadcast in the Netherlands in 1997.
5 Two Lancaster bombers (one from 106 Squadron) were shot down by night-fighters on return from an operation on Berlin on 30 March 1943. Each carried a crew of seven, all of whom (with the exception of one who survived and was taken prisoner of war) are buried at Lichtenvoorde General Cemetery. A Stirling bomber was shot down by a night-fighter during an operation on the Ruhr on 26 June 1943. One of the crew survived and was taken prisoner of war; the other six are buried at Lichtenvoorde General Cemetery. There is no evidence that the local resisters were able to provide assistance to the survivors in either case.
6 According to a newspaper account published in England in the 1990s, Duncan Hodgkinson’s sister was quoted to the effect that a family friend had heard his death confirmed in a German radio propaganda broadcast shortly after the crew failed to return (information from Wim Rhebergen).
7 Although the CWGC did sometimes concentrate isolated graves into larger cemeteries, this was more common in Germany than in the Netherlands, where there are numerous local war graves. The CWGC has no record of such an attempt with respect to the Lichtenvoorde General Cemetery.
8 Two recorded attempts, in August and September 1941, led to the arrest and execution of the helpers and the capture of the airmen. In the second case, two airmen who survived a crash about twenty kilometres west of Lichtenvoorde were escorted by resistance men as far as Den Haag before being discovered and arrested.
9 Leemreize was awarded the King’s Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom in 1947. He was one of about two hundred Netherland citizens upon whom Britain bestowed this honour.
10 Most recently in local television newscasts on the occasion of its seventieth anniversary in January 2012, and when Joe’s surviving sister Janet visited his grave in July 2013.
Chapter 32: Epilogue
1 It took nearly sixty years to agree on and construct a permanent commemoration of Bomber Command in London. Queen Elizabeth II dedicated the Bomber Command Memorial in June 2012.
Index
Abrams, Hy, 155, 157, 243
Acres, Len, 193, 193n3
aerodromes, defence of, 128
The Aeroplane (magazine), 252
Air Council (British), 183, 316
aircraft, Royal Air Force: Beaufort, 115, 138; Blenheim, 249; Hudson, 142; Mosquito, 248; Spitfire, xiii, 135, 142
– Hampden: bombsight on, 134; characteristics, 174–75, 209, 217, 218, 302, 319; crew configuration, 128–30, 132, 284–85; deployment in Bomber Command, 176, 178, 249, 259; deployment in 5 Group, 186; deployment in 106 squadron, 187, 299; operations, 194, 287, 314; deployment in sea-mining, 204; fatal accidents in training, 136; at Finningley, 132; in flight, 184; Arthur Harris’s view of, 129–30; in operational training units, 127; retirement of, 358; training on, 131–32
– Hampden AT122: fate of, 316–19, 342–44
– Lancaster: conversion to, 248, 296, 299, 358
– Manchester: 97 squadron equipped with, 187; conversion to, 358; crash at Coningsby, 286; deployment on operations, 249, 299; flying crew views on, 247, 297; training on, 131, 296, 311
– Wellington: characteristics, 128, 176–77; deployment in Bomber Command, 176, 178, 259; operations, 239, 249, 314; in Target for Tonight, 167; loss of, on Munster operation, 316; training on, 131
– Whitley: characteristics, 128, 176–77; deployment in Bomber Command, 176, 178, 259; operations, 239, 249
aircraft, trainers in Canada: Anson, 50, 60, 61, 66, 76; Fairey Battle, 63, 74
aircrew: beliefs on bombing accuracy, 214, 217, 236–37; casualties among, 138; formation of crews, 134, 168; morale among, 247–52. See also Canadian aircrew
Air Navigation School (No. 1, Rivers), 75–76; athletics at, 77–78; training at, 75–79
Air Observer School (No. 3, Regina), 49; athletics at, 53, 55; training at, 52–53, 57–59
air observers. See observers
Allen, Robert, 192, 358; wedding of in Woodhall Spa, 279–80
anti-aircraft artillery. See German air defences
anti-Semitism: in air force, 42, 43; in Britain, 231–32; in Canada, 21, 22, 359; in Montreal, 9, 292; in Ontario, 15, 292
area bombing, 180–81, 211, 250, 252, 254, 300, 359
armament (aircraft): in operational aircraft, 177; in training aircraft, 65
Assiniboia (Sask.), Christmas in, 68
astro-navigation, 57, 75–76, 130, 170, 180, 214–15, 252
Baldwin, Stanley, 174, 175
Battle of the Atlantic, 101–4, 141
battle stress. See flying stress
Beaver Club, 109–10, 197, 233
Beaverbrook, Lord, 145, 151
Belgium, 23, 32, 110, 182, 196, 209, 229, 282, 351, 353, 358
Bell, Clive: Civilization, 286–87
Bell, George, 275
Berger, Monty: xiv–xv; arrival in England, 241–42; enlistment debate with Joe, 39; failure to meet Joe at Levis, 89; interest in Zionism, 282; on Joe’s sense of purpose, 360; with Joe in England, 262–63, 275–76, 278, 295–96, 301–2; later life, 356–57; at McGill University, 9; in New York, 9, 37; on writing a play, 356; and Pony Club correspondence, 362; in Quebec City, 85; radio-locator training, 123–24; relationship with Jacobson family, 245; relationship with Joe, 9, 96; views on army, 124; views on Joe’s situation, 282–83; visit to RAF Coningsby, 32. See also Jacobson, Joe: relationship with Monty Berger; Jacobson, Joe: relationship with Monty Berger
Belfrage, Cedric: Let My People Go, 273–74
Berlin, 4; as target, 23, 167, 177, 210, 316. See also Operations, Bomber Command: Berlin
Bernhardt, Clara, 18, 328
Beveridge, Massey, 261, 261n6
Bird, Dick, 309, 313
blitz, 110–13
bomb aiming, 128–29, 178, 181, 183–84, 189, 191, 211, 213–16, 254
Bomber Command: Canadians in, x–xiv, 1, 170, 359; casualties in, 359; force strength, 177, 182, 184, 259; loss rates, 178, 180, 182, 184; morale in, 261, 279; operational research in, 181, 217; policy on commissions, 285; policy on operational tour length, 250–51, 284, 285–86; in popular memory, 359–60; situation in 1939, 177–78; situation in 1940, 178–81, 211; situation in 1941, 127–28, 171, 183–84, 267, 297; situation in 1942, 316; strategies and tactics, 57, 179, 182–84, 287–88, 300
Bomber Command, 5 Group, 186, 292
Bomber Command squadrons: function and organization, 186
– 97 Squadron, 108, 299
– 106 Squadron: 223, Canadian observers in, 188, 226; casualties in, 187–88; Christmas at, 288–89; Joe posted to, 166; role in Bomber Command, 187; situation of, 264, 287, 296–97; visit by Canadian officials, 298
Bomber Development Unit, 181
bombs, 63, 134, 179, 193, 249, 257, 314, 317; general purpose, 179; high explosive, 111, 112, 217, 300; incendiary, 112, 182, 189, 191, 193, 200, 211, 229, 236, 249, 250, 290, 292, 300; parachute, 292; wing, 204
bombing damage, 179, 182–84, 214, 221, 249–50, 349–50
bombsights: automatic, 133–34, 201; course-setting, 66, 134; Norden, 66; use in training, 63, 67, 80; use on operations, 181, 191–92
Britain, 24, 28–30, 66, 80, 102, 118, 130, 135, 151, 168, 169, 175–76, 275, 288. See also Jacobson, Joe, views on: England and the English; Jacobson, Joe, views on: war situation
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP): achievements of, 98, 358; establishment of, 28–29, 176; graduation from, 79–81; No. 1 Air Navigation School, Rivers, 75–79; No. 1 Air Observer School, Regina, 49, 51–55, 56–59; No. 2 Bombing and Gunnery School (Mossbank), 63–66, 67; No. 1 Initial Training School (Toronto), 40–44; problems of, 80; renegotiation of, 150, trades selection in, 41–43; training sequence, 49
Buck, Tim, 282, 282n, 287
Butt Report, 213–15, 249, 252; responses to, 214–15
cameras, in bomber aircraft, 139, 180, 193, 213, 215, 222, 292
Campaign Against Night Bombing, 275
Canada: attitudes and conditions in, 98, 114, 150; Department of National Defence for Air, 149; postwar, 359; war preparedness, 27
Canadian aircrew: attitudes of English towards, 110, 113; deployment overseas, 102, 118; dispersal in RAF squadrons, 114–15, 358; first impressions of England, 109–13; morale in England, 117–18, 119, 145, 150; observers’ contribution to bomber offensive, 170, 180; relations with British and other Dominion airmen, 118–20, 188, 227; sense of Canadian identity, 150, 170; separation from RCAF, xiii, 113
Canadian Army: in England, 25; in Iceland, 105–6; recruitment, 16, 30, 32, 38; in Truro, 91
Canadian Authors Association, 6
Canadian Officer Training Corps, 16
Carmichael, Doug, 227–28, 240n10, 260
Cato: Guilty Men, 152
censorship. See postal censorship
Chappell, Cliff, 61, 91n1, 358
Churchill, Winston, 25–26, 99, 142, 144, 147, 151–52, 214, 258, 288, 293, 359–60
Coastal Command, 115, 176, 260
communists, 19, 144, 269, 271, 273–74, 275, 289, 307
Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 336, 349, 350
condolence letters, 327
convoys: from Halifax, 102; HX120, 102–4; system of, 101; TC10, 102
Cook, John, 193, 193n3
Cooper, James, 138, 138n
Crete, 128, 141, 143, 152, 280
Daily Express (newspaper), 144–45, 151–52, 168, 232
Davies, Dave, 121, 121n4, 199, 205, 217, 225–27, 233, 235, 238, 242, 252, 255, 262, 267, 270, 275, 282, 289, 302–4, 306, 310–11
Davis, Charles, 138, 138n, 261
Death by Moonlight (CBC television broadcast), xiv
Denmark, 209, 239, 221n5, 313n2
Donaghue, John, 228, 228n4
Drury, Chip, 77, 77n2
Dunn, Rae, 188, 199n1, 218, 221, 221n6, 225, 228, 260
Durban, Nick, 105, 286n6
enlistment: by Canadian Jews, 15, 27, 359; in Ontario, 15–16, 19. See also Jacobson, Joe: enlistment
Erly, James, 188, 199, 199n1, 201, 260
First World War, 29, 30, 41, 45, 51, 76, 80, 175, 177, 179
flak. See German air defences
flying accidents and fatalities: on operations, 184, 207–11, 259; in training in Britain, 128, 137–39, 165–66; in training in Canada, 65, 67, 72, 78
flying stress, 229–30, 244–45, 254, 286
France, 24–25, 29, 72, 101, 105, 140, 141, 146–47, 178, 182, 196, 202, 209, 280, 298, 325, 326, 344, 353
Fraser, Alexander, 297n1
Fraser, Ken, 122n5, 156, 160
Free French forces, 111, 144
Freedman (family), 154, 156
Freedman, Janine, 155, 158, 160–62, 166, 169
Freedman, Suzanne, 155, 162
Fulton, Bill, 135, 233
Galt (Ont.), 16
German air defences: 182, 184, 209–11; anti-aircraft artillery, 204, 207, 209–11, 214, 317; countermeasures by Bomber Command, 211, 235; night fighters, 125, 136, 192, 207, 209–10, 216–17, 245, 264, 317; radar, 190, 209; searchlights, 194–96, 199, 200, 209–10, 216, 229, 238, 240, 247, 257, 264, 284, 286
Germany: civilian morale, 182–83, 249, 300; invades Soviet Union, 144; Mediterranean offensive, 128, 141; strategic air offensive against Britain, 189; western offensive, 22, 25, 101, 178, 344. See also strategic air offensive against Germany
Gibson, Guy, 358–59
Gillson, A.H.S., 76,
Gordon, John, 151
Grange, Ed, 107, 138, 138n11
Great Britain. See Britain
Great War. See First World War
Guelph (Ont.), 16
Halifax (N.S.), 91, 94, 96, 97, 101–2, 105, 108, 118, 335
Hammatt, D.A., 182, 309, 309n1
Harding, Sid, 216, 224, 261, 261n5, 284, 311, 329, 349, 354
Harris, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur, 129, 358, 359
Harvey, Jean-Charles, 166, 166n3
Hell Hooters, 55, 56, 94, 109, 113, 160, 357
Henderson, Don, 306, 306n
Hilborn, Percy, 16
Hill, Lawrence Stanley, 115
Hitler, Adolf, 3, 4, 16, 27, 88, 112, 292, 327, 348
Hodgkinson, Duncan, 189, 194, 216, 218, 222, 224, 253, 261, 261n5, 284, 302, 303, 304, 309, 311, 313, 315, 329, 343, 349–50, 354
Holland, 140, 193, 196, 202, 204, 209, 210, 241, 315, 317–18, 336, 356; occupation of, 344–45
Hunter, Art, 91n1, 97, 102–3, 107, 109, 111, 121, 122n5, 156, 160, 358
Iceland, 102, 104–6, 107, 144, 208
icing, on aircraft, 193, 207, 208–9, 257–58, 315–16, 319, 323
Initial Training School (No. 1, Toronto): 40; trade selection at, 40, 42, 43–44; training at, 41–42, 44
intruders, 133, 137, 257, 287n7
Jacobson, Edith, xiv, 5, 11, 68, 85, 95, 222, 324, 357
Jacobson, Janet, xiv, 5, 85, 86, 88, 95, 157, 222, 245, 324, 354n10, 357
Jacobson, Joe: ambitions, 3, 4, 10, 17, 22, 24, 218–19, 299; arrival in Britain, 109–10; athletics, 7, 18–19, 44, 53, 55, 64–67, 77–78, 120, 165, 227; at Air Observer School, 49–59, 50, 60, 61; on Atlantic crossing, 101–7; at Air Navigation School, 75–80; at Bombing and Gunnery School, 63–72, 73, 74; at embarkation depot, 91–97; at Twin Lakes summer camp, 12; at Westmount High, 7, 8; application for commission, 199, 298, 305; billeted in Woodhall Spa, 185–87, 197, 226, 328–29; as captain of aircraft, 285; car crash en route to Boston (Lincs), 302–3; confined to barracks in Regina, 55–56; correspondence with Monty Berger, 39, 55, 122–24, 263, 266, 268, 301, 302, 307, 309, 310, 317; correspondence with Pony Club, 9–10, 107n7, 119n2, 243; desire to train as pilot, 31, 54, 76, 131, 135, 193, 218–19, 227, 260, 285, 296, 311; diaries, notebooks, and letters, x–xii, 7–8, 83, 107, 151, 169, 247, 273–74, 332–34; early life, 6–8, 11, 12; embarkation, 96–97; embarkation leave in Montreal, 83–89; employment in Preston, 5, 16–17, 19–20; enlistment, 9, 30–33; family life and bonds, 6, 67–68, 83–88, 95–97, 155–56, 229, 298; first sortie, 189–91; funeral of, ix, 345–50; headstone inscription, 336, 338; instructions on personal possessions in event of failure to return; 303–4, 309, 340; judged unsuitable for commission, 59, 79; leaves in London, 110–11, 121, 166–67, 169, 197, 233–34, 261–62, 295–96, 306; leaves at Midfield, 153–58, 197–98, 235–35, 262–63; life in, 106 Squadron, 303, 304, 306, 313; at Manning Depot, 35–37; at McGill University, 8, 9; on McGill Redmen football team, 3, 7, 13, 323; morale in England, 118, 287–88; nickname of, ix; in operational training, 113, 131–40, 165–66; outlook and state of mind, 228, 234, 237, 238, 243, 254–55, 270, 288, 309, 313–14; personal situation and prospects, 244; plans to write play, 310–11; police incident in Horncastle, 205; posted to 106 Squadron, 166, 185; prospects for commission, 54, 76–78, 306; prospects for tour completion, 244; qualities as navigator, 253–54, 323; reading material, 17, 103–4, 268, 270–71, 273–74, 286–87, 297, 306; relationship with father, x–xii, 228, 309; relationship with Monty Berger, 9, 36, 273, 282–83, 284, 315–16 (see also Berger, Monty); relationship with Kostoris family, 153–56, 263; reunion with Monty Berger, 241–42; self-assessment and self-improvement, 8, 10, 17, 92–93, 95, 226, 236, 253, 254–55, 273; in Toronto, 18, 35–37, 41, 45, 83; uncertainty of fate, 330; uncertainty of identification, 349–50. See also aircraft, Royal Air Force: Hampden AT122, fate of