by Robyn Walker
Map 8: The initial positions of the Royal Rifles of Canada, December 1 to 18,1941.
Map 9: The positions of the Royal Rifles of Canada and the Japanese lines of
attack, December 19, 1941.
1: Bear on the Runway
Gander, a purebred Newfoundland dog, was born in the Dominion of Newfoundland, most likely in 1939. His family, the Haydens, had named him “Pal.” Newfoundland dogs are enormous animals, with long, shaggy black fur, known for their love of children, swimming skills, and rescuing abilities. As a puppy, Pal had a voracious appetite and grew rapidly. His intelligence and good temperament made him easy to train, and he enjoyed spending much of his time out of doors. Pal was well-known to the members of the small local community and was a much loved family pet. Certainly no one could have predicted that the small but growing bundle of black fur would one day be considered a war hero!
Gander, Newfoundland, was selected as the site for the construction of an airport due to its location near the northeastern tip of the North American continent. Construction began in 1936, and the town started to develop. In 1940, Gander was not so much a town as a collection of construction camps. There were very few civilians living there and only about ten homes had been built. When the one-room schoolhouse opened, it had only fourteen pupils. Rod Hayden, his wife, and his young son Jack were one of the few families living there. Rod Hayden was the depot officer for the Shell Oil Company, and Gander Airport was a major refilling station for planes that were on their way to England.
In July 1940, the Germans had launched a massive bombing campaign against England in preparation for the invasion of the island nation. British factories, airfields, and cities were the targets of the German bombers. The Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter pilots sustained heavy casualties in defence of their homeland, and the supply of replacement pilots could not keep pace with the losses. To help bolster the RAF numbers, many pilots were trained in Canada and then sent over to England, where they defended England’s skies against German bombers or engaged in bombing missions themselves against German targets.5
Description of Newfoundland Dogs
Newfoundland dogs are massive animals, with males measuring over seventy cen–timetres in height and weighing just over sixty-seven kilograms. The females measure about sixty-one centimetres and weigh about fifty-four kilograms. Their thick black coats (sometimes mixed with white, solid brown, or grey) are water repel–lent, and their feet are webbed, making them excellent swimmers. The breed is described by the United Kennel Club in Kalamazoo, Michigan, as, “Possess–ing natural life saving instincts. Their gentle expression reflects the benevolence, intelligence, and dignity that are breed characteristics.”1The rescue instinct, in–nate in Newfoundlands, is so respected that the breed was considered, “required lifesaving equipment,” along the coast of England during the 1800s.2New–foundland dogs are now widely used as therapy dogs, in search and rescue mis–sions, and as water rescue dogs.
Photograph of a New–foundlanddog.
Two of the world’s most famous writers have penned their own observations of the Newfoundland dog. The British poet Lord Byron, pining after the death of his own Newfoundland dog Boatswain, wrote a poem called “Epitaph to a Dog,” which reads:
Near this spot
Are deposited the remains
Of one
Who possessed Beauty
Without Vanity,
Strength without Insolence,
Courage without Ferocity,
And all the Virtues of Man,
Without his Vices.
This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
If inscribed over Human Ashes,
Is but a just tribute to the Memory of
“Boatswain,” a Dog. 3
American philosopher-naturalist Henry David Thoreau, in his book Walden, simply states, “A man is not a good man to me because he will feed me if I should be starving, or warm me if I should be freezing, or pull me out of a ditch if I should ever fall in one. I can find you a Newfoundland dog that will do as much.”4
Sergeant Gander’s heroism may be Canada’s highest profile Newfoundland rescue story, but throughout Canadian history there have been many more. Two examples are the stories of Tang and Hairy Dog:
Tang: In 1919, a ship called the Ethie ran aground just off the coast of western Newfoundland. Tang, the ship’s massive Newfoundland dog, jumped into the sea and swam to shore with a rope in his mouth.People on shore secured the rope and used it to rescue the members of the Ethie’s crew. Tang received a medal from the Lloyd’s of London insurance company for his heroic deed.
Hairy Dog: In 1832 the Despatch, a ship carrying over 150 Irish immigrants, wrecked just off the coast of Newfoundland. The Harvey family, from Isle aux Morts (Island of Death), saw the wreck and had their pet Newfoundland, Hairy Dog, swim out to the survivors and help tow them ashore.
Location of Gander in Newfoundland.
From the time that Pal was a pup he became actively involved in the Canadian war effort. In 1940, the Dominion of Newfoundland gave operating control of Gander Airport to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Renamed RCAF Station Gander in 1941, the airport became a hub of military activity as it was used not only as a disembarkation centre for pilots, but also for the transport of newly built aircraft from North America to the European war theatre. The airport was also a staging area for anti-submarine patrols. Pal was a familiar figure at the airport. When he was old enough he
Gander/Pal with an un–identified male friend, winter 1940.
was often put to work, harnessed to haul fifty-gallon drums of petrol, two at a time, from the warehouse to the airplanes to assist in the refuelling process. In fact, Pal is affectionately remembered as the first refuelling “vehicle” at the Gander airport.
When Pal wasn’t working he enjoyed racing around the airfield and taking naps right on the landing strips. For pilots, the large dog presented a huge problem. He was so big and shaggy that many pilots radioed in that they couldn’t land because there was a bear on the runway. Eileen Elms (formerly Chafe), a local Gander schoolgirl, remembers “Douglas Fraser, who landed the first plane here, did say he saw what he thought was a bear on the taxiway and it turned out to be Pal.”6
A Brief History of Newfoundland and Labrador
The territory known as Newfoundland and Labrador is made up of the island of Newfoundland and the area named Labrador, which is located on the continental mainland of Canada. Newfoundland and Labrador are situated on the northeastern side of North America, on the Atlantic Ocean. Originally populated by indigenous people, Newfoundland was also home to several short-lived Viking settlements as early as 986 AD. Rediscovered by the Europeans approximately five hundred years later, it was first claimed for England by explorer John Cabot in 1497, and later by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583. Newfoundland was a British colony up until 1907, when it acquired self-government status and was renamed the Dominion of Newfoundland.
Hit hard by the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Newfoundland government asked the British to take back control of Newfoundland in 1934, until the Dominion could become more self-sustaining. Between 1934 and 1949 a six member Commission of Government was responsible for the administration of Newfoundland, reporting directly to London. After the war two referendums were held to determine the fate of Newfoundland. The first, in 1946, was inconclusive, with 44.5 per cent of Newfoundlanders supporting the restoration of Dominion status, 41.4 per cent supporting confederation with Canada, and 14.3 per cent supporting the continuation of the Commission of Government.7The second referendum, held in 1949, offered only two choices: restoration of Dominion status or confederation with Canada. With fifty-two per cent of the vote supporting Confederation, Newfoundland became Canada’s tenth province on March 31, 1949.
Canada and Newfound–land show–ing territorial boundaries as of 1941 (cre–ated in 1915).
Gander Airport to 1945
Construction of the airpo
rt at Gander began in 1936, and it became operational two years later. With four paved runways it was the world’s largest airport at the time, and was known as Newfoundland Airport.
In 1941, with the war raging in Europe and the German threat growing, the Newfoundland government offered control of the airport to the Canadian government.The strategic importance of this airport had caught the attention of both the Canadian and Newfoundland governments. It was North America’s most easterly land-based airport, making it an ideal refuelling point for trans-Atlantic flights. Its location also gave pilots the greatest range for surveillance flights over the western Atlantic Ocean.However, there were fears that the airport, which had no active defence force, might fall into the hands of the Germans. The Newfoundland governor, Sir Humphrey Walwyn, requested that the facility be turned over to Canada for the duration of the war.
The Canadian government agreed and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) bombers arrived at the airport in June 1940, followed soon after by soldiers from Canada’s Black Watch, a reserve military unit from Montreal, Quebec. The Black Watch regiment and the RCAF’s orders were to defend the airport from air attacks or sea-based landings, and to patrol the western Atlantic to provide early warning of any enemy attack. The airport was renamed RCAF Gander, and expansion began almost immediately with additional hangars, barracks, and storage being added to the existing facility. The German threat to Canada’s eastern coastline proved to be very real. Not only did German submarines attack and sink Canadian ships, penetrating as far as Rimouski on the St. Lawrence River, but the Germans also laid mines in the waters off Halifax and St. John’s and were able to establish an automatic weather station in Northern Labrador.
By November 1940, Ferry Command, a Royal Air Force Service that had been raised in status, was also operating out of RCAF Gander. Planes built in Canada and the United States for Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) were “ferried” or flown across the Atlantic, as opposed to being dismantled and shipped by sea. This was a much faster means of getting the aircraft to Britain and less hazardous as well, since ships were always vulnerable to Gereman U-boat attack.
Photograph of Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King at Gan–der Airport, August 1941.
As the war progressed so did the activity at RCAF Gander. By the latter part of 1941, the air traffic was so heavy that more barracks and hangars had to be built, and the runways were lengthened. Service facilities like a bakery, a laundry, and a hospital were added. Also in 1941, the Americans were invited onto the base to assist in the war effort, although they had not yet formally entered the war. They stationed troops there and added their own facilities to the base, creating an “American side.” By 1943, RCAF Gander was the largest air force base in Canada, playing such an important role in Ferry Command that Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill called RCAF Gander, “the largest aircraft carrier in the North Atlantic.”8At the end of the war many of the troops and materials returning from Europe were also transported through the site.
RCAF Station Gander was disbanded in 1945, and control of the airport was returned to Newfoundland.
Despite the difficulties that Pal caused for incoming pilots, his friendly nature made him an extremely popular figure at the airport. Adored by the neighbourhood children, Pal was their constant playmate. He loved playing with them too, and even allowed himself to be harnessed up to pull their sleds in the winter. Pal liked to run fast and he would race across the hardpacked snow with the sled bouncing along behind him. He wasn’t very good at stopping though, and the ride usually ended with the children toppling off the sled. Eileen Elms fondly recalls, “He was very playful and gentle with us children … and often knocked us in the snow … we all loved him.”9
Pal loved to greet people by rearing up and placing his paws on their shoulders. But one day he jumped up on a little girl, Joan Chafe, and accidentally scratched her face. The injury to the girl’s face was actually quite severe. Joan’s sister, Eileen, who witnessed the accident recalled that day: “I was one of the children who played daily with Pal … A photo of Pal hangs on my living room wall. He’s harnessed to a sled and I’m one of the three children being pulled by the dog … One day during play the dog jumped on my sister’s shoulders, but his paw missed and accidentally scratched her face.”10 Eileen’s sister had scratches in three places, and she remembers,
Photograph of Gander/ Pal pulling neighbourhood children Tom Hayden, Mike Ratcliffe, and Eileen Chafe.
“There was lots of blood and both my mother and Mrs. Hayden were very upset … my sister had the scars ’til she died as there was no doctor to stitch her face, and it didn’t seem serious — nor was it really.”11 Worried that Pal was becoming simply too big to be a family pet any longer, and that he was too much of a hazard to have running around the airfield, the Hayden family gave Pal to the Royal Rifles of Canada, an army regiment stationed at Gander Airport. The Royal Rifles, who had trained at Valcartier, Quebec, and who had previously been stationed in Sussex, New Brunswick, had arrived in Gander in November 1940. The majority of the Royal Rifles were stationed at Gander Airport while two companies were stationed at the Botwood seaport. The neighbourhood children were heartbroken, but the soldiers were ecstatic. The Royal Rifles renamed Pal “Gander,” and the big dog went from being a much loved family pet, to a much loved army mascot.
Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King was Canada’s longest-serving prime minister. The grandson of William Lyon Mackenzie, leader of the Rebellion of 1837, King was selected by the Liberal Party as the successor to Sir Wilfred Laurier in 1920, and was elected prime minister in 1921. King had many years of experience in politics before being elected prime minister, including serving as the minister of labour under the Laurier government. He was a political science and law graduate from the University of Toronto, and also held degrees from the universities of Harvard and Chicago.
When the Second World War began in Europe, the Canadian government did not automatically commit itself to go to war on behalf of Great Britain. King was adamant that only the Canadian Parliament could decide upon a declaration of war. However, he felt that Canada did have an obligation to support Great Britain and following a special session of Parliament, held on September 7, 1939, King announced that “if this house will not support us in that policy, it will have to find some other government to assume the responsibilities of the present.”12On September 10, 1939, after several days of debate in the House of Commons, Canada issued a formal declaration of war against Germany.
The Rt. Hon.W.L. Macken–zie King with his dog Pat at Moorside Cot–tage, August 21, 1940.
King was a staunch supporter of supplying aid to Great Britain throughout the war. He also provided a vital communications link between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin Roosevelt, until the Americans formally entered the war in 1941. Throughout the war, King’s government ensured the steady flow of war materials to Great Britain.
Mackenzie King was re-elected in 1945, just after the end of the war in Europe. He announced his retirement in 1948, having served twenty-two years as prime minister. He died of pneumonia on July 22, 1950, and is buried in Toronto at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
Mackenzie King was also a dog lover. In July 1924, King was given an Irish Terrier puppy by some close friends. He named the dog Pat and the two became devoted companions.
Daily walks and evenings sharing cookies and Ovaltine became part of the pair’s regular routine. Pat was so important to King that the little dog was mentioned in almost every entry in his personal diary over the next seventeen years.
In due time, Pat became sick and died in July 1941, an event that caused King much sorrow. In his December 31, 1941, diary entry, King wrote, “As I think it all over tonight, the event that touched me most deeply of all was perhaps the death of little Pat. Our years together, and particularly our months in the early spring and summer, have been a true spiritual pilgrimage. That little dog has taught
me how to live, and how to look forward, without concern, to the arms that will be around me when I too, pass away. We shall be together in the Beyond. Of that I am perfectly sure.”12
Ferry Command
Ferry Command was created in response to the desperate need for airplanes to support the British war effort. British airplane factories were obvious targets for German bombers.
In an effort to ensure a continuous supply of aircraft with which to defend itself, Britain looked to Canada and the United States to keep the Royal Air Force supplied. Recognizing that surface shipping over the Atlantic Ocean was very slow and very vulnerable to attack, the idea of having pilots “ferry” the planes across the ocean was developed.
However, the plan found little support among RAF commanders, who felt that the distance across the Atlantic was too far, and the weather too unpredictable for the idea to be worthwhile in practice. Moreover, the RAF couldn’t spare any pilots to ferry the aircraft. Lord Beaverbrook, senior cabinet minister in Britain’s government, ignored the RAF’s concerns and set up an all-civilian organization to implement the operation. The ferrying program experienced success throughout the 1940s and early 1941, and by July 1941 it was taken over by the Royal Air Force. At that point, Air Chief Marshall Sir Frederick Bowhill was placed in charge of Ferry Command, and its primary function was to fly newly constructed aircraft from Canadian and American factories to operational units in Great Britain.
Its pilots were a mixed lot — crop dusters, barnstormers, bush pilots, and stunt pilots; Americans, Canadians, and a variety of Europeans. Few of the pilots had any trans-Atlantic experience, but all of them shared the courage to give it a try. The civilian ranks were often supplemented by recent graduates from the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan,14made up of pilots, navigators, wireless operators who wanted to gain some transatlantic flight experience, and experienced Royal Canadian Air Force pilots who were en route to assignments overseas. Gander Airport was used as the refuelling stop on the first ferry route. The success of the program meant that further routes were added. Smaller range planes could refuel in Goose Bay (Labrador), Greenland, and Iceland. There was also a South Route that linked the United States to Egypt. In March 1943, Ferry Command was subsumed into Transport Command, which had a global, as opposed to merely trans-Atlantic, operational area. Throughout the course of the war over 9,000 aircraft were ferried across the Atlantic.