Issue 25.12
Daniel grew up and lived in Alberta, Canada. Great Britain and so Canada were participants in World War 2 more than two years before the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor and then the U S was also in the war. Daniel enlisted in the RCAF when he turned eighteen in 1942 and received much of his training in Canada. He wanted to be a pilot but everyone else did also, so there was not room for him in that program so Daniel trained as an Air Observer. In the lower 48, we called them navigators. At the end of his Canadian training, he sailed to England on the prewar luxury liner Queen Elizabeth which was converted into a troop ship. This ship was fast enough that she crossed the Atlantic without escort and not in a convoy. Daniel had further training in England and then was assigned to the 432nd Bomber squadron. The first of 36 missions was to Dusseldorf, Germany.
The RAF and the RCAF flew their bombing missions into Germany at night, not in a formation but single file while the Americans flew missions in the daytime flying in defensive formations.
On this mission they had a successful bomb run and were on their way home when they were caught in multiple search lights. Their bomber was lighted up like noon day sunshine. The FLAK was coming up thick and fast concentrated on their plane. Daniel was taught from childhood to pray regularly and this time was no exception. The crew expected to be shot down at any second. One crewman said over the interphone “There’s a cloud just below us and to the left. They dived that heavy bomber down very fast to the safety of that cloud and were saved.
Daniel was sure that his guardian angel provided that cloud at just the right time and place and it was big enough and dense enough to hide their plane.
Another time they had been caught by enemy JU88night fighters but the blackness of the night allowed them to get home safely.
On a mission to Heine St. Pierre they were attacked by JU88’s. They used violent evasive action to prevent the enemy of getting a bead on them. They saw the tracers arch past them but few scored hits. On the enemy’s second pass at them from 6 o’clock, the tail gunner nailed the bandit before he got his guns bearing.
On another mission on a low level attack, a piece of ground fire, FLAK, the size of a baseball passed through Daniel’s seat pack parachute without hitting Daniel. On July of 1944 they flew a mission, not in their old reliable “Oscar the Outlaw” but in a Halifax bomber to Hamburg. There was always apprehension on a mission to this city. They came home with some battle damage but some of their friends were shot down that night.
After his 36th and final mission he was assigned to do ground navigational instruction to help new crews and later he went across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary which was also converted into a troop ship. This ship also was fast enough to not require an escort nor in a convoy. They passed the statue of Liberty in New York harbor and then traveled by train to Canada.