Six Sacks of Potatoes

On May 27th, 1 took the 11:30 p.m. sleeper to Montreal where after breakfast and a short sight-seeing walk I boarded the Maritime Express for Moncton and them on to Summerside where we checked in about 7 p.m. An old pal and next door neighbor of ours, Vincent Landreville from Pearson Ave., in the Parkdale district of Toronto, welcomed me on arrival. Vincent was an aero-engine mechanic on semi-permanent assignment at the #1 General Reconnaissance School where we pilot graduates were to spend the next six weeks learning a bit about navigation.

Life at Summerside for us was very relaxed with little of the strict discipline we had at Elementary and Service Flying Schools. Usually on good weather days we would spend the morning at ground school and the afternoon flying with the next day being reversed.

Our flying was done in Avro Ansons and involved a three or four hour flight up the Gaspe Peninsula. We would work in pairs with one of us plotting our course seated at the Navigator's table, while the other would use the various navigation instruments to check our position from the winds, sun location, and radio beacons. After the first few flips we found this routine quite boring, but we did learn a little.

Our social life consisted of playing baseball, the odd golf game, writing letters, movies at the camp cinema, and taking in the town dance every Saturday night in Summerside. That night all the farmers in the area came to town to shop and take in the sights. The beaches on P.E.I. were fabulous and we also spent a good deal of time sunning and swimming, along with girl watching.

When we got into night flying the navigation exercises became more interesting with the study of the stars and planets. I usually was paired with "Baldy" Balderson a good friend and we had lots of fun trying to get ourselves lost. A few times we had trouble with the Anson pilots. In order to enliven their monotonous job they would beat up some small fishing boat or farmer's cattle while we were in the middle of a sextant shot. This action did not go over too well with Baldy or myself. We didn't want to be written off before we even got overseas. The pilots of these flying "greenhouses" usually had graduated near the bottom of the class and unfortunately received the worst postings.

One weekend Vin and I went to Charlottetown on the bus and had a good time. The only major difference between it and Summerside was that it had two main streets. The town was full of R.A.F. and the residents did not care much for them. We were at the dance on the Saturday evening and the girls wouldn't dance with you until they learned you were a Canadian. I never found out the reason for the hostility toward the English chaps.

As is my habit, I had to spend the last week of my G.R. course studying in order to have any chance at passing the Ground School exams. Fortunately I squeaked through and received a welcome posting overseas, which was to come after a 10 day leave at home. Those days passed all too quickly and were spent partly in Haliburton with Doug Campbell, a Parkdale Collegiate chum.

On my way to Halifax I stopped in Montreal to visit with my brother Lloyd who was taking wireless training at the R.C.A.F. Technical School. We had a good chin-wag while he showed me some of his favorite haunts before he saw me off on the midnight train to Halifax. On arrival at the patriation depot I met up with several fellows whom I had known in my earlier training days and a lot of time was spent catching up with the news since we last met.

As you can imagine, Halifax was swarming with service personnel, army, navy, and air force. Most of the few days we were there was spent sight-seeing. I remember having the film in my camera removed by the military police after I took a picture of the harbor from the top of Citadel Hill. Later that same day I was taken to dinner by Stu Tregaskes, a high school buddy who was now a Naval Lieutenant stationed in very posh barracks over on the North-West Arm. Before a scrumptious dinner we enjoyed a tennis match and a dip in their pool. After the evening concert and my return to our makeshift barracks, I wondered if I had signed up for the right service.

Finally, after a few days of sight-seeing and loafing, we received notice that we were on our way overseas, and early the next morning we boarded the train for New York where we were to catch a troop transport for Britain. Upon arrival the train went directly to dockside. There were about 80 Canadian Air Force officers along with 800 or so U.S. Army personnel taken on board an old Liberty Ship. Early the next morning we set sail and became part of a large convoy which was in the process of forming in the Atlantic. By that evening there must have been at least 30 to 40 ships in the convoy, protected by what appeared to be a couple of Corvettes. As officers we received first class treatment with excellent meals, service and comfortable bunks.

During our second night at sea the convoy ran into a violent storm with the result being that the ships were scattered in several different directions. As it turned out we were left quite defenseless, all alone, and operating on one of our two engines. After a few hours we were informed by the Captain that repairs were not possible and the ship was going to return to New York on its one good engine. After two more anxious days at sea we finally staggered back into port. Fortunately, the Canadians were disembarked almost immediately after being told to catch the midnight train to Montreal. Some of us spent that evening at the Stage Door Canteen where we danced and ate and had a good time until we had to leave for Grand Central terminal to catch the sleeper to Montreal. You can imagine my brother Lloyd's surprise when I called him the next morning and asked him out to lunch. Later that day we again caught the train to Halifax, however, this time there was a difference, the train went directly to the harbor and we were ushered on board the Queen Elizabeth I, which was being used as a troopship between Canada and Britain since its completion.