Volume 41 February 2007 Number 5 http://www.cahs.ca/torontochapter . Canadian Aviation Historical Society This meeting is jointly sponsored by CAHS Toronto Chapter Meeting Toronto Chapter and the Toronto Aerospace February 10, 2006 Museum- All CAHS / TAM members, guests Meeting starts at 1 PM and the public (museum admission payable) are -Under the Glider- welcome to attend. Toronto Aerospace Museum, 65 Carl Hall Refreshments will be served Road, Toronto AAALanding Fee @@@ of $2.00 will be charged to cover meeting expenses Next Meeting March10, 2006 Last Month’s Meeting . 2 Chapter News B February 2007 . 6 Folded Wings . 6 Lou Wise . 6 Thank You . 7 Wings & Wheels . 7 National Convention . 7 Meeting Dates . 7 Powerpoint Anyone ? . 7 This month’s meeting: Speaker– Capt. Percy Purpura (Ret’d) “2005 Dart Mission to Pakistan” 1 Flypast V. 41 No. 4 Last Month’s Meeting War II, and his grandfather was the office December Meeting manager in 1931. Richard began by tracing the history of the war Canadian Mosquitoes in the Chinese Civil War, between the Nationalist regime under with photos by George Stewart, DFC Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and the Speaker: Richard Banigan Communist forces led by Mao Tse-tung. The Reporter: Gord McNulty struggle erupted over land reform in 1926 and ended with a Communist victory in 1949. The CAHS Toronto Chapter President Howard opposing sides had suspended the fighting Malone introduced Richard Banigan, who during the war with Japan but the conflict once presented a fascinating CD slideshow featuring again erupted into civil war in 1946. Late in photos by George Stewart, DFC. A Hamilton 1949 the American-supported Nationalists native, George flew the de Havilland DH 98 were forced to flee to the island of Taiwan, Mosquito on Night Intruder Operations with No. where Chiang set up a regime he claimed was 23 Squadron, RAF, during the Second World the rightful government of China. George has War and later went to China to instruct pilots on about 300 photos in collection --- only about 30 the Mossie for Nationalist China during the of which have ever been published. Some of Communist-Nationalist Civil War. Richard the photos have been published in articles that joined the RCAF right out of Etobicoke College George has written for the CAHS Journal in 1960. He obtained his Wings at Gimli, Manitoba, in May 1962. He was sent for multi-engine training and ended up on Lancasters. Richard flew FM104 and FM213 at 107 Rescue Unit, Torbay, Newfoundland, then KB882, KB976, and KB839 with 408 Squadron, Rockliffe. He finished up on C-119 Flying Boxcars and Dakotas at Trenton. Richard returned to school and graduated with a B.A.from York University in 1968. He worked in the public relations department at de Havilland Canada from 1967 to 1969, then received a fellowship to study at Stanford University in California for a couple of years. He started teaching at St. Clair College in Windsor in 1972. Richard then married and acquired an instant family of six in 1975. He George Stewart at the controls of a Mossie continued teaching at Sheridan College in Oakville from 1979 and obtained his M.Ed. (AMosquitoes over the Yangtse, @ Vol. 17, No. from OISE/UT in 1986. Richard started his own 2, Summer 1979, and AA 55-Year Leap Into computer graphics and desktop publishing The Past, @ Vol. 42, No. 1, Spring 2004). business in 1987. He co-founded the Toronto Richard has digitized the entire collection, Aerospace Museum in 1995 (member #2). His managing to salvage a lot of photos that would father worked on Mosquitoes at DH in World not have been suitable for publication. Some Flypast V. 41 No. 4 2 photos were only the size of a postage stamp, Kai-shek and his wife. Chennault, a former and were shot with a crude box camera. They American air force officer, was on medical were the only photographic record of the early discharge when he met Chiang. He became days of Mosquito training at the Hankow commander in chief of the American forces in airfield. There were no negatives, but Richard China during the war. After the war, he started took the contact prints and shot them at 1,200 an airline called Civil Air Transport which dots per inch. He enlarged them as much as he used surplus C-46 Commando aircraft that had could, then reduced them to about 300 dots per flown the Hump during the hostilities. CAT inch to make them suitable for publication. He eventually became Air America and a front for even experimented with colouration and the CIA. managed to turn some photos into fully In 1943, a high-level delegation from China colourized shots. He achieved impressive came from Washington to visit the de results, especially considering that George Havilland Canada facilities at Downsview to started with only a cheap box camera with a evaluate the Mosquito, as illustrated in one of poor lens. the photos. They returned in the summer of Richard noted during World War II, the 1947, when the Nationalist forces were headquarters of the American war effort was struggling to contain Mao’s APeople’s located at centrally-located Chungking. Japan Liberation Army, @ to negotiate a purchase of ruled the entire area, and all supplies for the the fighter-bombers through the Lend-Lease war effort had to be flown in from India on the program. Mao’s forces had acquired an arsenal Hump route, over the highest mountains in the of weapons --- hundreds of aircraft, hundreds world. There never was enough material to fight of tanks, and hundreds of thousands of rifles --- the Japanese, who continued to advance in that the Russians had obtained from the China right into 1945. They weren’t stopped Japanese. With Mao’s forces pressing the until August, 1945, when Russia invaded Nationalists, a contract was signed to manage Manchuria and killed 100,000 Japanese troops the transfer of 200 Mosquito fighter bombers in what Richard called Athe last big battle of from Canada to China and oversee their World War II. @ Richard suggested Japan was reassembly. One of Richard’s shots illustrated just about ready to surrender when the United Mosquitoes which had been disassembled and States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and put into crates for shipment to Shanghai from Nagasaki to finish the war. AThere was some Vancouver in 1948. In all, three squadrons evidence that the Japanese were suing for peace were trained by the Canadians. before the A-bombs were dropped, @ Richard noted. He added that Japan would have been hammered even more, by the Russians and the Commonwealth Allies including Canada who were preparing the Tiger Force to join the U.S. in the bombing of Japan, if the Japanese had tried to resist. He suggested Japan would not have lasted long, regardless of the A-bomb attacks. Richard presented a 1938 shot of Gen. Claire Chennault, of AFlying Tigers @ fame, with Chiang 3 Flypast V. 41 No. 4 Instruction started at Downsview in February, skidded sideways. The fuselage broke in two. 1948, with 15 Chinese air force pilots and some Turnbull and his student pilot, however, were Canadian instructors. The high-performance okay. All of the Mossies at Hankow had engine Mossie proved to be a formidable challenge for failures, tire blowouts and other emergencies. the Chinese. They wrote off seven Mossies in Some of them served as trainers, with dual one week alone and nine altogether. Some controls. pilots should not have been in the program to George Stewart spent a year in China on a start with. Like many Third World countries, the one-year contract. He left Malton on March 22, Chinese selected pilots on the basis of 1948 by commercial airline and arrived in ‘connections to the boss’ as opposed to talent. Shanghai on March 28, 1948 to fly with the The Toronto-trained pilots quickly sent word Chinese Air Force. During his time in China, back to the homeland describing the Mosquito major cities were surrounded and taken by as ALin Tai Yu, @ a legendary empress who was Mao’s forces. Beijing fell on Dec. 10, 1948 beautiful but wicked. without a fight. George left that month, as the Nationalists were on the verge of collapse. It was such a chaotic situation that George didn’t really have much of an idea what was happening, especially when communications were primitive compared to today’s ‘24/7’ media environment. As described in Fred Hotson’s book, de Havilland in Canada, there was more training than combat because the Mossies and other sophisticated surplus WWII equipment were not suited to the guerrilla tactics of the more mobile Communist forces (a Nationalist Chinese Training Aircraft lesson that was later to repeat itself in Vietnam.) Richard noted, however, that the The program was then moved to China, with Mosquitoes were used effectively in at least Mossies being shipped in crates from both one battle at Hsuchow, 200 miles north of Halifax and Vancouver and then reassembled in Hankow, where they thwarted the Communists China. Flight training started in Hankow --- 450 the first time they tried to cross the Yellow miles inland from Shanghai, on the River. The Nationalists, however, left the YangtzeRiver --- on April 12, 1948. Chief place defenceless, figuring they had won the instructor was G/C Robert Carl ‘Moose’ battle, and the Communists returned in force. Fumerton, DFC and Bar, Beaufighter and In December, 1949, the Mossies also played a Mosquito night-fighter ace who became the key role in repelling an attempted Communist RCAF’s highest-scoring night-fighter pilot with seaborne invasion of the island of Hainan, off 14 ‘kills.’ (‘Moose’ died on July 10, 2006, at the southern coast of China.