Volume 40 September 2005 Number 1 http://www.cahs.ca/torontochapter This Month’s Meeting: artillery, staff and United Nations Shorty: An Aviation Pioneer appointments. He commanded 2nd Surface to Surface Missile Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery and 2nd Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. He is a graduate of the British Army Staff College, Camberley, Surrey and the United States Armed Forces Staff College, Norfolk,Virginia. He also served on the faculty of the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College, Toronto. On retiring from the Canadian Forces in 1978, he joined the news staff at CHAY FM radio in Barrie, Ontario eventually becoming the station's News Director and Operations 1:00 pm Saturday September 17 Manager. TAM Daytime Meeting From 1994 to 1999 he contributed regularly to two military publications and produced a 65 Carl Hall Rd - See Back Page for Map quarterly publication, Military Digest, which was circulated by subscription. His Weblog , Jim Henderson was born in July, 1929 in “The Crabby Canadian” has been operational Burlington, Ontario, too late to enjoy the for the past year. He is a member of the affluence of the Roaring Twenties but in plenty Canadian Aviation Historical Society, the of time to learn about the Great Depression from Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, and the his stockbroker-turned-chicken farmer father. Royal Canadian Arillery Association. His adolescence was spent in Brantford, Shorty: An Aviation Pioneer is his second book Ontario where he joined the Militia. A Reserve to be published by Trafford. His first, The Army commission while still in school led, after Nuking of Happy Valley is a collection of employment as a broadcaster at CKPC in amusing anecdotes from his military career. Brantford, to full time military service with the Regular Army. We hope you enjoy this daytime meeting, a Early in 1950 he became editor of the Stoney frequent request of our members. Creek News, near Hamilton, but in the autumn of 1950 the far distant trumpet prevailed and he joined the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery bound for Korea. In Korea he was granted a regular commission. During his military career he served in various 1 Flypast V. 40 No. 1 Last Month’s Meeting hard copy in 2000 and received good reviews June 8, 2005 meeting in major newspapers such as the Toronto Star In for a Penny, In for a Pound and the Globe and Mail. Howard said he and Speaker: Howard Hewer his colleagues didn't speak about the war after Reporter: Gord McNulty it ended. When the book was published, his wife told him that it was about "a husband she never knew before." His son and daughter, for their part, said it was about "a father they had never known." Howard likes to tell young people to study their history, otherwise, "they won't know who they are." He jokingly recalled one woman who told Howard that after reading the book, he reminded her of Forrest Gump. "Having seen the movie, I wasn't that pleased," Howard recalled. However, the rest of the review was excellent. On reflection, considering what Howard called the situations Toronto Chapter President Howard Malone he "blundered into or stupidly volunteered for, introduced guest speaker Howard Hewer. Born like Forrest Gump," he said he could see why in Toronto, our speaker enlisted in 1940, hoping he reminded her of Forrest Gump. Howard for pilot training, but was selected for the traced "three pieces of good luck in his life." Wireless Operator course. He served as a The first was surviving the war; the second was wireless operator in RAF Bomber Command to have such a varied and rewarding career with Squadrons 218 and 148 in night operations over the RCAF. His third piece of luck was meeting Germany and North Africa. He flew 300 his wife. He met her in August, 1944 on a operational hours in Wellington Marks I and II. blind date on a Sunday picnic at Belleville, Howard enjoyed a long career with the RCAF Ontario, after he had returned from overseas in postwar, including seven years on early 1944. anti-submarine warfare out of Greenwood, N.S. Howard dreamed of piloting Spitfires or and Halifax, on Lancasters and Neptunes. He Hurricanes over Europe, but other events ended his career at the staff college in Toronto transpired --- notably the opening of a wireless and retired as a Wing Commander in 1972, after school in Calgary. Howard was among a group 32 years of air force service. He has received sent from ITS in Toronto to make up the first the Queen's Coronation Medal, the Malta course in Calgary. Then they went to the George Cross Fiftieth Anniversary Medal and bombing and gunnery school at Jarvis, Ontario the Canadian Special Service Medal. He is a and went overseas in March 1941 after member of the Toronto branch of the aircrew graduation as wireless operator/air gunners. At association and author of In for a Penny, In for Uxbridge, they were to be recruited to take part a Pound (paperback edition published by in a film called Target for Tonight. There Anchor Canada, $22). Howard lives with his were no actors in the cast; it was all RAF wife, Doris, in Toronto. aircrew. The people in the briefing room Howard brought copies of his outstanding book scenes were colleagues of Howard's from to the meeting for sale. It was first published in training. In fact, the pilot in the film was Flight Flypast V. 40 No. 1 2 Lieutenant Percy Charles Pickard, an per hour." Howard's crew ended up at RAF experienced and decorated veteran of Bomber Station Marham, assigned to 218 Squadron, Command operations. which was part of 3 Group in Bomber Sadly, Pickard lost his life on Feb 18, 1944, as Command. a Group Captain leading Mosquitoes on The title of Howard's book came from an Operation Jericho, one of the most daring Australian flying officer, who perched himself operations of the war: the low-level attack on on the edge of a table with his hat at a rakish Amiens prison. The raid enabled 200 French angle and a holstered revolver. He welcomed resistance fighters who were imprisoned there to the new arrivals with an unforgettable greeting: escape and remain out of German hands for the "Well chaps, your glamour period is over. You rest of the war. got in for a penny, but now you're in for a Howard, instead of participating in the film, pound." decided to go to London with a friend, Ted. Lo The new arrivals also had a stark introduction and behold, it was May 10, 1941 --- the date of from a flight lieutenant who was the medical the biggest night incendiary raid of the war. officer. In his parting words, he told them that They had a great time, at least until around 11 if they were ever trapped in a burning aircraft, pm, until the bombs started to fall. It was their "it was best to get it over with in a hurry. The first real encounter with the mayhem of war. way to get it over in a hurry is to open your Howard put his steel helmet on and seconds mouth and take a deep breath. Then you won't later, it was ripped wide open. He had been hit slowly burn." by shrapnel from a bomb. He and Ted, As for the bombing raids, Howard said the wandering around looking for a shelter, came pilot they had in OTU was replaced, as upon a horrific scene of destruction: the bomb - customary, by a new captain whom he wrecked CafΘ de Paris dance hall. The airmen described simply as Sgt. B. He had already were recruited by a policeman to take bodies done 20 bombing raids so he was a little and parts of bodies from the dance hall. A nervous. He had to be encouraged to go in 500-pound bomb had landed in the middle of right over the target. "We were green enough, the dance floor and killed 400 people, including or stupid enough I suppose, to urge him to do a lot of Canadians. Even at that stage of the this on our raids," Howard said. On their Blitz, many people were ignoring the call of the second raid, on Cologne, they were badly shot sirens to take shelter. Howard was 19 at the up. Howard looked down the fuselage just as a time. For him, the episode marked the "first shell exploded and was blinded temporarily. loss of innocence." He fixed his damaged radio set and got a From there, Howard and his colleagues went to course for home base. The heading, however, operational training on the Wellington bomber, was wrong. the famous "Wimpy" of geodetic structure The Wimpy was over water, heading for the designed by Barnes Wallis. As Howard North Sea, and dangerously low on fuel. recalled, "It was a primitive aeroplane. Over However, they managed to make corrections Europe, we never got above 10,000 feet. Later and head back to southeast England. Howard on, the Halifaxes and Lancasters hardly ever recalled that the radio operator was very busy. went below 20,000 feet." He said the Wimpy, He had to help the navigator with all of the with a tail wind and the nose slightly down, navigation aids available, such as a bubble "could reach the frightening speed of 150 miles sextant to obtain star fixes, a compass, a gyro, 3 Flypast V. 40 No. 1 a map, etc., but it was relatively primitive.