Commanding Canadian and British Radar Technicians

Heroes Remember

Commanding Canadian and British Radar Technicians

Transcript

Got to England, and they sent me to a night fighter squadron, 537 Squadron. And I was there for a short while. And the first time I ever went out to service an aircraft, gee, this was real stuff you see. So I determined it was that unit. And so I took it out and brought it in the workshop. I said, “Has to be the modulator, I think.” The officer said, “Did you kick it?” “What?” “Did you kick it?” “No, I don’t kick it.” He said, “Always kick a piece of equipment before you bring it in here.” And from there, I went to an air observer school with another Canadian. We were the only two Canadians on the unit. And somewhere down the line, somebody put a recommendation in for me to have a commission. I went up to, after a couple of boards, I went up to group headquarters, which was in a little place called Market Drayton, which was 25 miles outside of Crewe. And I had to go up to Crewe the night before, and I met a friend of mine who was also up there for the same thing. So the next morning, we got up and it was great, because they’d evacuated a lot of these girls in the British Civil Service. And we went to the dance and it was about ten to one in our favour. Next morning, we got up, went to the station. “Where is the train to Crewe?” One of these accents, “Onze heure.” So we got on the train about 25 miles. An hour later, it stopped. It had been an express. We were up at Stafford. So I had to call back to group headquarters, this chap, and I said, “Um, Russell and Linden got on the wrong train. We won’t be there this morning.” He said, “My God, and you expect to have a commission?” Anyway, they did. I was successful and went through officer’s training school there, and I was posted out to Italy. And I was a wing radar officer on a heavy bomber wing, operating out of Fadhiya, in the Fadhiya Plains. We originally had Wellingtons, and then we converted onto Liberators about December, 1944. Interesting enough, there was this mixture of Canadians, and about a third of my mechanics were Canadians, and the rest were British. And I had to be careful, because the British lads were quite literal to command. If I said, “Crap!” the British lad might say, “Where?” I had quite an experience working with them. Again, in this place, I was the only Canadian officer in the unit. When we first got out there, we were about 40 miles behind the line. And the mechanics wore sparks, we called them sparks. And for the first, while we were there, they had to take those down. Eventually, the line moved up in Italy, and we stayed there with the heavy bombing force. One of my tent mates, Norman Canfield, was an electrical officer, and Norman had been ... he had a couple of landings in Italy, and been shot at several times, bombed at several times. And we had a slit trench. Norman was very particular that any paper or anything got in the duck walk, at the bottom of the slit trench. I said, “Norman, Norman look, look. We got all these fighters around here, all these aircraft, we don’t have any problem.” And so I ignored it. And then one day, we did have a problem. And then the raid went from white, to yellow, to red all of a sudden, overhead. And I dove for the slit trench, and Norman landed on top of me. And for the rest of the time, he said, “You’ll keep this GD thing clean after this.” And then, I was posted home after VE day, when the RCF decided that all RCF personnel who were attached to Royal Air Force would be withdrawn. And so we were withdrawn, en masse.

Description

Mr. Linden tells us about his experiences commanding both Canadian and British radar technicians servicing aircraft with the 537 night fighter squadron.

Robert Linden

Mr. Linden was born on March 14, 1921, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As a young boy, he always had a great fascination for air planes, which led him to seek employment in that field. When the Second World War broke out, Mr. Linden decided to join the Air Force. In 1941, he enlisted in Winnipeg as a radar mechanic, and trained in radio physics at the University of Toronto. He was later posted overseas for service with the Royal Air Force under the 537 (Night-fighter) Squadron. In 1943, he received a commission and held RCAF Officer rank, later reaching the rank of Flight Lieutenant at 236 Wing RAF. In August, 1945, Mr. Linden married in England, and returned to Vancouver to study engineering at the University of British Columbia and later his M.Sc. at MIT. In 1956, he resigned his commission and began a long career working with the federal government in Ottawa. He retired in 1978, but continued to studied history for MA at Carleton University. Mr. Linden’s keen desire to recognize the importance of radar during the Second World War led him and many other radar personnel to form the Canadian Radar History Project in 1987. This project was exhibited at Canada's War Museum in Ottawa.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 4:37
Person Interviewed:: Robert Linden
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: England
Branch:: Air Force
Units/Ship:: 537 Squadron
Rank:: Officer
Occupation:: Radar Mechanic

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Commanding Canadian and British Radar Technicians

Heroes Remember