125 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca them make and see the mistake and then show them how to recover. It was a necessary part of training and it’s how the majority of accidents happened. “Cautious instructors graduated poor pilots.” How did one become a flying instructor? If it was put down as a preference after graduating as a pilot, you would be certain not to be posted to a flying instructor’s school. If you were dumb enough to graduate in the top five or ten percent of the class with an above average log book endorsement and requested an overseas posting, you were in trouble as a prime candidate as an instructor. The trouble was that prior to that point you were so scared of being washed out or posted to a position of staff pilot at an A.O.S. (Air Observer School), or B. and G. School (Bombing and Gunnery School), that you did not know where the cut off line was so you did your best. Later on, when the number of instructors met the requirements the situation changed, but they never did graduate enough replacements to allow them all an operational posting as promised. Then there was learning to fly in adverse weather conditions as it was certain that conditions would not always be good when returning to the U.K. after a trip over the continent. An example of the result of this can be seen at the little Cairn at Cardale Manitoba, where the memorial service was held in June 1992. The entire crew of four were killed when their aircraft crashed in a heavy rain storm during a training flight in 1942. Low flying experience was a requirement for pilots in action. They did not fly up river valleys or low enough to escape radar without previous experience. You had to realize that not only the life of your students but also the lives of his entire crew, if he went to bomber command, depended on how well he had been taught. As well as Canadian students, Archie had students from most of the Commonwealth: Britain, Australia and New Zealand, including M ori but he never had a student graduate that he did not feel that he had taught to the best of his ability. It did hurt to see them going on to do the things that you would prefer to be doing yourself but flying instructors were a forgotten breed. There was a recommendation that a Medal be struck for them similar to a campaign medal, and that a thousand hours of instructional time would be considered a tour when instructors would be presented with their operational wings. But all that was shot down by the Federal Government of the day. With the dropping of the A Bomb (Atomic Bomb) on the Japanese seaport cities, Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki, August 9, the chance of going to the Pacific theatre was over. Archie ended up as Officer Commanding B.A.T. Flight (Beam Approach Training Flight) but still “JUST” a flying instructor. To quote Winston Churchill, Wartime Prime Minister of Great Britain, concerning the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan: “Canada’s greatest single contribution to the allied victory in the Second World War.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. President, referred to Canada as the “Airdrome of Democracy”. Canada, as host of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, trained 130,000 men from all over the Commonwealth, including 50,000 pilots. During the five years it operated, more than 850 trainees and instructors died. Half a century later people are just beginning to realize what the training casualties were. Years ago, people didn’t talk about it because they were preoccupied with the war effort. But the sacrifices were made here as well as overseas. From his graduating class alone, about the same number of graduates died in Canada as those who died overseas. After his discharge in the fall of 1945, in Winnipeg, Archie returned to the farm in the Rapid City area and also worked for the C.P.R. In July 1946, he was married Winona Horner. They had one son and four grandchildren. Archie was engaged in a pure bred cattle, semen and embryo operation, and exported pure bred Simmentals to 17 countries around the world. He was a Life Member of The Royal Canadian Legion General Hugh Dyer Branch 138 in Minnedosa and has been Service Officer for about 20 years. In the late fall of 1945, he was in Deer Lodge Hospital in Winnipeg and saw the raw deal Vets were getting. That is when he decided that if ever he had the opportunity to help the cause of Veterans, he would do so. Hence his involvement as service officer. He received the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal and War Medal 1939-1945. Archie passed away in 2019. LONDRY, Archie William (continued)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0NTk1OA==