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Flying Desert Rat: the Combat Career of Squadron Leader Bert Houle

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Flying Desert Rat: the Combat Career of Squadron Leader Bert Houle Canadian Military History Volume 7 Issue 1 Article 3 1998 Flying Desert Rat: The Combat Career of Squadron Leader Bert Houle Christopher Evans Wilfrid Laurier University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Evans, Christopher "Flying Desert Rat: The Combat Career of Squadron Leader Bert Houle." Canadian Military History 7, 1 (1998) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Evans: Flying Desert Rat: The Combat Career of Squadron Leader Bert Houl Squadron Leader Bert Houle, DFC by Paul Alexander Goranson Watereolour paper on art board - matted 37.2 em x 27.9 em; CWM CN 11386 Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 1998 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 7 [1998], Iss. 1, Art. 3 Flying Desert Rat The Combat Career of Squadron Leader Bert Houle Christopher Evans I\ lbert Houle is a Canadian whose war, while Toronto. While studying he found, much like his .rl.not totally unique for a Canadian fighter pilot earlier days in Massey, that getting into fights in World War Two, was certainly far from the seemed a little too easy and he decided to learn norm. His entire combat career was fought in how to get out of them just as easily. He chose North Africa, Sicily and Italy. His first tour was not the debating team but the boxing and with the Royal Air Force and his second with the wrestling teams. Houle excelled at both winning Royal Canadian Air Force. Similar to another the school boxing title in his second year and Canadian ace George Beurling, Houle's desire the Canadian intercollegiate wrestling for combat and intemperate attitude to all those championship in his graduation year. 1 who stood in his way led to as many actions on the ground as in the air. Almost without After graduation Houle worked as an exception, Houle viewed anyone not in combat electrician at a mine in Northern Ontario before or directly supporting it as so much it closed and he came back to U ofT, accepting a administrative deadwood and this attitude would teaching post. He stayed there until the spring cost him on more than one occasion. However, of 1938 when he again went back to the mines. unlike Beurling, Houle had the demeanour and By this time war was looming on the horizon desire to lead men in combat and bring them and Houle worried that his job as an engineer home again. would disqualify him for active service so he promptly quit, had his tonsils removed and teeth Born Albert Ulrich Houle on 24 March 1914 checked so that the medical examiners would in Massey, Ontario. Bert Houle was shaped by find no excuse to turn him down. With two of his rural environment. With ancestry tracing his brothers married and the third recovering back to both France and Ireland, Houle, along from an operation Houle felt it was up to him to with three brothers and one sister, was raised fight for the family. He, like many other young as neither French or English but simply men of the time, was captivated by flying, Canadian. Life on the farm was tough and the especially after reading Canada's Fighting Canadian theme of survival in the wildemess was Airmen by Colonel George Drew. Names like ever present. Bishop, Barker, Collishaw, McLeod and McLaren still inspired in 1939 and Houle hoped to add Self-reliance was all important and by the his name among them. He began selection age of 10 Houle learned to shoot a rifle. Hunting training for air crew in September of 1940 and was a way of supplementing the dinner table and with his engineering degree found it relatively Houle focused on making the first shot count. It easy. was a skill that would serve him well in the skies over North Africa and Italy years later. Having In January 1941 at the age of 26 Houle was mastered the wild environs of Northern Canada posted to No.32 Service Flying Training School Houle was to succeed equally well in academia. at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to help fill out an In 1932 Houle was accepted in to the Electrical RAF course. Eager to get in the fight neither he Engineering program at the University of nor his fellow Canadians cared that it was RAF. ©Canadian MUitary History, Volume 7, Number l, Winter 1998, pp.20-28. 21 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol7/iss1/3 2 Evans: Flying Desert Rat: The Combat Career of Squadron Leader Bert Houl In fact, he later realized how fortunate he was to it and fast. The pilot that hangs around the edge have trained with the RAF as many of his British stands a good chance of being singled out and instructors had at least one combat tour under shot down." Now in England and having listened their belts and so were able to impart more to the stories of Battle of Britain veterans Houle knowledge than their less experienced Canadian and the others were more than eager to board counterparts. the HMS Furious in August 1941 ferrying Hurricanes for God knew where. They reasoned, Finally, in April 1941 Houle was presented correctly as it tumed out, that the fighters would with his wings. Standing at parade he thought be going where the action was. about previous wing parades where some notable like Billy Bishop arrived to personally pin the They ferried their planes to Egypt at which wings on your chest. Instead, he and his fellow point the new pilots were sent to RAF HQ, Mid pilots were grouped around as the chief ground East Command, Cairo to await posting. Canada's instructor passed out their wings, tossing them only fighter unit to serve in the Mediterranean to those in the back. Despite the lack of pomp theatre was 417 Squadron, which would not and circumstance Houle and the others were now arrive until over one year later in June 1942. pilots and the resultant party made up for any Therefore, it was merely routine that Pilot Officer hurt feelings. Albert Houle, RCAF, was posted to 213 Squadron RAF, equipped with Hurricanes, in September Houle arrived in England in June. 1941. Canadianization of the RCAF was still struggling to assert itself so Houle along with many other Houle's first taste of action happened on 30 Canadian pilots were posted to No.55 October and was in fact a friendly fire incident. Operational Training Unit for familiarization on 213 was attached to 272 Squadron, a Hurricanes. 2 While there a Polish instructor gave Beaufighter unit tasked with the defence of Houle some advice which stuck, both because it Alexandria. Several 213 pilots including Houle made sense and it suited Houle's personality decided to hitch a ride during a training exercise perfectly: "In a dog fight get right in the thick of with the Beaufighters making some practice runs Canadian pilots of213 SquadronRAFduring the summer of 1942 whenflying patrols over the ElAlameinline. (l. to r.): Mike Avis (American in RCAF); Lefty Steele; Harry Compton (bailed out on 18 November 1942 earning Caterpillar medal); Johnny Rebstock (killed while strafing near Agedabia, 18 November 1942): Houle (bandage from diving into slit trench); Freddy Wilson; Bill Stephenson (PoW 21 October 1942). (Photo from Houle collection) Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 1998 3 Canadian Military History, Vol. 7 [1998], Iss. 1, Art. 3 Wiih the nonchalance that only a fighter ace can convey. Houle relaxes on the wing of his Spitfire Mk. Vb Trop. January 1943. near Tripoli, Libya. Houle was only stationed with 145 squadronfor a short time until his promotion to lead 41 7 Squadron. (Photo from Houle collection) on the Allied shipping about 30 miles off the coast. Despite being forewarned and having other 272 Squadron members on the ships the navy gunners opened up on the Beaufighters, bringing one down. Houle and the others made it back to base a sad and unforgiving group; the waste of life caused by his own side was a difficult baptism of fire. The next six months were a frustrating and monotonous routine of remaining on readiness with only the occasional scramble. Even when scrambled the now seriously obsolete Hurricane had little chance of intercepting its target, invariably a high flying JU 88 performing reconnaissance. Houle's first contact with an enemy aircraft finally came in April 1942, while on a typical patrol over Alexandria. Nerves and excitement after so many months of boredom caused him to dive vertically on a JU 88 almost ramming the plane in his enthusiasm. The JU 88 got away. Encouraged despite his poor showing, Houle was devastated just a few days later when he was pulled off flying operations team. The so called defensive circle so often for crash landing his Hurricane after the forward mentioned as a tactic used by the RAF in the windscreen had become fogged over causing him desert was a misnomer according to Houle. It to misjudge his approach. The next two months was never taught but rather was the outcome of were bitter indeed as he languished in the rear, flying a poor section formation, the rectangular disgusted by the "9 to 5 charlies" and their paper six. When attacked out of the sun the tactic was clips while he heard the stories of his friends to turn into the sun and the attack, to do fighting up at the front.
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