Editor’s CornER elcome to yet another summer edition of Barker remained in the embryonic Canadian Air Force after the Canadian Military Journal. This time the war, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and after several out, our cover proudly features Ottawa business ventures, including a short-lived flying business partner- artist Stephen Quick’s wonderful interpre- ship with friend, fellow ace and V.C. holder ‘Billy’ Bishop, in 1930, tation of Major William ‘Will’ Barker’s he became president of Fairchild Aviation’s fledgling Canadian WVictoria Cross fight on 27 October 1918. Barker, who would operation. Tragically, on 12 March 1930, he was killed instantly finish the war with 50 accredited aerial victories and become at Rockcliffe Airport in Ottawa when the training aircraft he was Canada’s most decorated airman of the war, was flying his demonstrating for the Department of National Defence stalled and last combat patrol over the Western Front that day, in a new crashed. Although it proved impossible to determine the exact cause Sopwith Snipe, the formidable successor to the ubiquitous of the accident, the need for a rapid throttle adjustment to help break Sopwith Camel, before returning to England for a staff assign- the stall [which would have required the decisive use of his left ment. At 12,000 feet, in a brilliant blue sky over the Forêt hand – Ed.] appears to have been an issue. In a letter of condolence, de Mormal at 8:25 AM, Barker spotted a white Rumpler C Barker’s British surgeon, Robert Dolbey, made a chilling observation two-seater reconnoitering the lines from well above him at with respect to the great ace’s physical limitations: 21,000 feet. After several climbing turns to gain advantage, Barker put telling bursts into the German aircraft. As the “After the war, I operated on his elbow joint, after which Rumpler broke up in the air, one of the crew members emerged – though it was no fault of mine, but an inevitable result in a blossoming parachute. Barker stared transfixed by the of the destruction of the bone, he was never able to have scene, a near-fatal mistake, for he in turn was hammered by a any power in his arm, unless he had a retentive apparatus, Fokker D VII, the first he had ever encountered, and he was so that Barker, from that time onwards, flew entirely with severely wounded in the right thigh. Fainting from the pain, one arm. He was one of the finest young men that I ever Barker somehow threw the Snipe into a spin, only to recover met and I think his death is a terrible loss, not only to consciousness some 2000 feet lower, in the midst of a total Canada, but to the whole of the British Empire.” force of approximately fifteen D VIIs! For the next several minutes, Barker was everywhere in the sky. Flying with con- With respect to our current issue, seasoned infantry summate skill, yet believing he was doomed, he gave even officer Lieutenant-Colonel Pierre Leroux ‘takes the point’ with an more than he got. He fired at two of the Fokkers inconclusively, interesting and informative discourse on security force capability but set a third one on fire from ten yards’ range. Wounded a building, based upon his experience in command of Operation second time, now in the left thigh, Barker again fainted and UNIFIER in Ukraine during 2018 and 2019. While he maintains again spun downwards, regaining consciousness at 15,000 feet that the operation was successful, he also cautions that there was amid a portion of the enemy formation. Barker then gunned significant room for improvement. Therefore, while he details the down another Fokker in flames, but one of this group peppered initiatives used to enhance the Security Forces of Ukraine, and his Snipe and shattered his left elbow. Passing out once more, touches upon some of the notable achievements towards developing he entered a third spin and recovered in a further group of the enduring effects, Leroux further offers some recommendations enemy scouts flying at 12,000 feet. With his Snipe now riddled for future commanders and leaders of any future security force and smoking, Barker selected another Fokker for attention and capability building missions. blasted it to bits, although his aircraft suffered more damage as he flew through the wreckage of his latest victim. Still in dire Next, long-serving Army veteran Darryl Cathcart maintains peril, Barker seized upon a brief exit corridor, dived westward, that, “…for many, uniformed service in the Canadian Armed and streaked towards the British lines, adroitly dodging more Forces is a family affair where military spouses, partners, and of the enemy in the process. Crossing the lines at scant feet, children are immersed in a unique sub-culture that does not exist he crash-landed into the barbed wire entanglements protecting in any other profession in Canada.” He further opines, “When a a British observation balloon site. military member leaves the CAF, whether voluntary or otherwise, a confluence of factors must be considered to ensure the conditions One of the many British and Canadian soldiers who witnessed for transition are met, including the needs of one’s immediate this epic fight was Lieutenant-Colonel (later General) A.G.L. family.” Cathcart stresses that the effect of retirement implicates ‘Andy’ McNaughton, then-Commander of the Canadian Corps the entire family, as the primary external influence transitions of Heavy Artillery, who called it a “stimulating event.” Sometime from military service to family goals, and keys in on some of the later, he wrote that the cheers that echoed across the front for the challenges associated with transition, while urging for continued little British fighter were “…never matched…not on any other research into the concomitant familial challenges. Specifically, occasion.” The balloonists of 29 Kite Balloon Section raced to “…the impacts upon spouses, children, and friends who provide the downed Snipe and promptly extricated the unconscious young front-line support to transitioning Veterans” need to be considered, pilot, now awash in his own arterial blood. ‘Will’ Barker’s last along with the development of specific ‘civilianization’ workshops war flight was over, and although he did not know it at the time, and seminars “…to help enable a family-first transition approach. he had just won the Victoria Cross, one of just three Canadian airmen to do so during the Great War… Canadian Military Journal • Vol. 19, No. 3, Summer 2019 3 Editor’s CornER Moving right along, veteran human resources supervisor and which spans over a decade of work, ambitiously strives to capture emergency management, operations, planning and logistics officer the essence, if not the soul of conflict by examining the military Simon Wells maintains that while the threats to the nation from commanders and civilian decision-makers who prosecute it.” electromagnetic pulses (EMPs), are considered to be unlikely events, “…it is irresponsible to ignore the catastrophic effects In our Military History section, The Royal Canadian Air of a natural or human-caused pulse.” Wells further maintains: Force’s Chief Historian, Dr. Richard Mayne, explores the embry- “In order to reframe the severity of the EMP threat to Canada, onic days of the Canadian Air Force, founded in fire during the the referential object of risk should be shifted to the individual, closing stages of the First World War. While when hostilities not infrastructure, and the focus should be shifted to long-term ended, Canada set out to create a truly distinctive and unique air impacts, not immediate outcomes. Interested? Read on… force, the Royal Canadian Air Force that eventually emerged was, for many reasons, “…a faithful replica of [Britain’s] Royal Air Our next article is particularly visual in nature. Colonel (Ret’d) Force.” Mayne explains: “…this article will attempt to demonstrate Bernd Horn, no stranger to our pages, explores the world of war that the RCAF survived because it adopted British identifiers in art and its myriad contributions, “…whether to glorify conflict lean times, which gave this force a sense of professionalism and in some manner, to provide propaganda, to create a visual under- permanency.” standing of events or as anti-war statements laden with pathos and horror. Indisputably, war art captures emotion on many levels, A number of diversified and interesting opinion pieces are then from patriotic martial fervor to heart-wrenching sadness at the offered in this issue. In the first, engineering officer and specialist abject horror and senselessness of conflict.” While Horn provides in Disaster and Emergency Management, Major Donald Saul, in a and discusses examples of the emotions of war on canvas, the review of traditional and present Canadian disaster and emergency psychology of conflict has not been extensively addressed using management, “…reveals a growing trend in the employment of the same medium. “… [However], in this respect, contemporary military assets to address gaps in municipal and provincial capa- war artist Gertrude Kearns takes a different approach, The Art bility.” Saul posits that while our armed forces have traditionally of Command project [extensively featured in this article – Ed.], been relegated to response efforts, due to growing costs, it may be Canada National Aerospace Museum E6938 Aerospace National Canada A Sopwith Snipe scout, similar to the one flown by William Barker during his epic fight. 4 Canadian Military Journal • Vol. 19, No. 3, Summer 2019 Editor’s CornER Pringle & Booth/Library and Archives Canada/C-003538 Canada/C-003538 Archives & Booth/Library and Pringle A post-war shot of ‘Billy’ Bishop (left) and ‘Will’ Barker in front of one of their privately-owned Fokker DVIIs.