389 In the Service of Canada AIR FORCE biographies Riley, Christopher Donald Glassford Christopher was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on 3 August 1923. He attended school in St. James where he met his future wife, Ivy Tidy. During the Second World War, Chris volunteered and joined the RCAF in December 1942. Upon completion of initial training in Canada and a marriage to Ivy in September 1943, he went overseas to complete his training at an Operational Training Unit (OTU) and then onto a Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU) where aircrew gained experience on four-engine “Heavies.” Chris was the Bomb Aimer in the seven-man crew that originally formed up at the OTU. Captained by pilot Flying Officer Jimmy Boyle and ready for operations, the crew joined 426 Squadron RCAF stationed at Linton-on-Ouse in Yorkshire in March 1945, one of fifteen new crews that joined the squadron that month.1 The squadron operated Halifax Mk VII’s at this time. A crew was typically a tight group and Chris got on well with Boyle, and the Navigator, Dave Smith especially. By 1944, Chris was commissioned and eventually promoted to Flying Officer. Boyle flew as second pilot or “second dickie” on two operations in late March 1945. These flights familiarized new pilots to operations with more veteran aircrews before taking their own crew on operations. Then, with Boyle at the controls, the crew participated in a raid on the Blohm and Voss works located in Hamburg on the night of 8/9 April. The new crew was “on ops” again over Germany the next night, April 10th when Chris released his bombload on Leipzig. The crew next flew on operations on 22 April, this night the target was Bremen. Three nights later, on 25 April 1945, the crew participated in the squadron’s last operation of the war. Twenty 426 Squadron aircraft were on the order of battle that evening as part of an allout Bomber Command effort involving 482 aircraft. The target was the coastal defense
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