426 Part Three: The Air Defence of Canada, I 939-45 incendiaries. The submarine 1-25 had launched two partially successful seaplane bombing missions over Oregon in September 1942, mere pin pricks, but the long-term objective was to be achieved by free-flying balloons. Thousands of them, made of paper, were to fly at an average altitude of 30,000 feet carrying four small incendiaries and one anti-personnel bomb, dropped sequentially by an altitude regulating device. The campaign finally began in November I 94, because upper air currents between November and March were ideal for the purpose. '02 This time of year was also, of course, the worst for igniting forests, since they were rain soaked or snow covered. The first incidents occurred in the United States in December, and a balloon came down with its payload near Minton, Sask., on I 2 January. Officials, fearing that the balloons might soon be used to transport biological weapons, tried to deny the Japanese all knowledge of the effectiveness of the balloons by instituting tight press censorship. Io3 In Canada the army became the chief co-ordinating agency to deal with Japanese balloons, supported by the RCAF,RCMP, and various research in- stitutions. The RCAF'S job was to shoot down balloons where possible, fly army bomb disposal experts to incident sites, and transport recovered material to Ottawa. The Aircraft Detection Corps had been disbanded on 15 November 194, but the west coast radar stations and filter centres (unlike those in the United States) were still fully operational. Unfortunately they were not much use against these high altitude targets, paper not being a good reflector of radio waves and the metal components being very small. Detection therefore was haphazard. On 2 I February 1945 a Kittyhawk of I 33 (F) Squadron shot down a balloon near Sumas, BC.On 10March another aircraft of this squadron got one of two 'Papers' spotted at Galiano Island, in the Strait of Georgia. Two days later, a 6 (BR)Canso forced down a partially deflated balloon drifting at 500 feet over the Rupert Inlet near Coal Harbour. Wartime reports claim another interception in March near Strathmore, Alta, but it cannot be verified in any unit or station diary. Io4 By then the campaign was already near its end. Peak balloon-launching months were February and March, with a corresponding rise in balloon reports in North America. The final balloon was launched no later than April 1945. Faced by silence in North American news sources, and suffering production disrup- tions caused by more traditional American bombing, the Japanese cancelled the , campaign. There had been no fwes attributed to balloon bombs and only one incident of injury or death (in the United States). Although civil and military authorities prepared for incendiary and biological defence, there was no real increase in the resources committed to west coast defence. '05 The end was in sight by July. One by one the units of Western Air Command began to stand down. Japan surrendered on 14 August. One month later, on I 5 September I 945, I I (BR)Squadron, a Liberator-equipped veteran of the Battle of the Atlantic which joined the command's order of battle on 25 May, disbanded. It was the last operational squadron of the two home defence commands. The Pacific Coast 427 In his postwar report, Air Vice-Marshal Heakes wrote: 'The chief difficulties encountered in all operations was weather, due to limited weather reporting facilities in the Pacific and the mountains with their local weather effects. Throughout the summer months a blanket of fog usually extended out over the Pacific up to a distance of 500 miles, thus curtailing effective visual search and requiring greater dependency upon radar. In this connection, the best types were not available for search. 'Io6 The airmen of Western Air Command, with their frequently old and worn-out equipment, had performed a tedious and dangerous service, dangerous because weather and terrain put aircrew constantly at risk. There had been, however, little threat of enemy attack. The large establishment on the west coast was more to provide insurance against the possibility of Japanese raids than to carry the war to the enemy. Despite a creditable showing in the Aleutians in 1942-3, Western Air Command's principal function had been to give the population of British Columbia peace of mind. It may be regarded at this distance as a questionable use of scarce resources, but there were two useful military consequences: the exercise of sovereignty in Canadian coastal regions and the creation of a trained fighting force to reinforce other regions if and when needed. PART FOUR The North Atlantic Lifeline The focus of all Eastern Air Command activity: RCAF Station Dartmouth, 1943, as seen from the southwest. Hangars and slipways for flying-boat operations are in the foreground. (REA I 32-53) Douglas Digby No 740 of 10 (BR)Squadron, the machine in which Squadron Leader C.L. Annis made the first attack on a U-boat by an RCAF aircraft, in October 1941. Digbys were the mainstay of I Group's operations until the end of 1942. (PA140642) The first of Eastern Air Command's Catalinas, a Mark I of I 16 (BR)Squadron, under- goes a close inspection by RCAF personnel at Dartmouth, September 1941. (PL5952) First arrivals at Torbay, Nfld, October I 94 I : two B-I 7s of the USAAF and a Digby of 10 (BR)Squadron. (RE64-1 382) Bombing up a 10 (BR)Squadron Digby at Gander in early 1942, by Paul Goranson. The trolley carries the ineffective anti-submarine bombs and, at the back, three 450-lb Amatol-filled depth charges - the first really effective anti-submarine weapon in the Eastern Air Command inventory. This significant piece of Canadian war art 'disappeared' in the immediate postwar years. Anyone knowing its location is invited to contact the Canadian War Museum. (PL I 3418) A misleading wartime representation of the RCAF'S role in the defence of convoys. It was the ~ansoswhich ranged far to seaward and tackled the U-boat packs, while the medium-range Hudsons operated closer to land. (PL 13802) Depth charges falling away from a I 16 (BR) Squadron Catalina during an exercise, April I 943. (RE 64- I 044) Squadron Leader N.E. Small, the officer responsible for I 13 (BR) Squadron's re- markable success during the 1942 U-boat campaign in Canadian waters. (PL I 26 10) Loading a 250-lb depth charge into the bomb-bay of a Hudson, which sports the white camouflage scheme adopted by Eastern Air Command for anti-submarine aircraft in 1942. (PMR 77-192) One of the U-boats attacked by aircraft from I 13 (BR) Squadron: u-165 as seen from Flight Lieutenant R.S. Keetley 's Hudson on 9 September 1942, just south of Anti- costi Island. (PL I 28 14) Three pilots of I 13 (BR)Squadron who made attacks on U-boats during 1942:left to right, Flight Sergeant A.S. White, Flight Lieutenant R.S. Keetley , and the squadron commanding officer, Squadron Leader N.E. Small. A wartime censor has crudely blotted out the wall map of the Atlantic coast. (PL 12609) u-5 I 7 plunges to safety on 29 September I 942, as Flying Officer M .J . Belanger and crew of I 13 (BR)Squadron make an attack run in their Hudson. The Gasp6 coast is clearly visible in the background. (PMR 83-26) Flying Officer M.J. Belanger, second from right, and his crew being debriefed by a squadron intelligence officer. Belanger's three attacks in four days on u-517 in September I942 were spoiled by the lack of effective shallow-set depth charges. (PL 12628) A 145 (BR) Squadron Hudson Mk I on I October 1942, its new camouflage scheme so recently - and quickly - applied that even the tires are coated. (PL I 17987) Beaching a Canso, in this instance on the west coast in November 1943. (PL 21928) Operations plot, Eastern Air Command Headquarters, Halifax, 9 January I 943. (PL 14623) Wing Commander C.L. Annis as commander of 10 (BR) Squadron, with one of the 'North Atlantic Squadron's' new Liberators behind him. Spring I 943. (PL 2 I 786) A must for over-ocean operations: the life raft of a Lockheed Ventura, demonstrated at Sydney in August 1943. In the background is a Digby of 161 (BR) Squadron; to the right a Hudson Mk I is being stripped of its useable parts. (RE 69- I 562) Refuelling a 10 (BR) Squadron Liberator at Gander in the summer of 1943. This particular aircraft has had most of its secondary armament removed in order to conserve weight and thereby increase range. (PL 2 I 169) One that got away. A U-boat of Group Leuthen, its guns still trained on the aircraft, as seen from Flight Lieutenant R.R. Inghams's Liberator on 23 September 1943 during the battle for convoys ONS I 810~202. (RE64-1034) Liberator P of 10 (BR)Squadron over the bleak Newfoundland landscape in the spring of 1943. The bulge under the aircraft's nose housed its 'Dumbo' radar set. (PL 36938) Flying Officer W. Howes and Flight Sergeant A.J. Marion of 10 (BR)Squadron at the controls of a Liberator, I August I 943. (PL2 I 783) A Lockheed Ventura of 145 (BR)Squadron, still in its United States Navy colour scheme, taking off from Torbay, Nfld, September 1943. (PA141 394) A 10 (BR) Squadron Liberator at Gander, during the winter of 1943-4.