Mosquitoes Needed Wireless Navigators

Heroes Remember

Mosquitoes Needed Wireless Navigators

Transcript

There was a two-man crew on the Mosquito, it was made of plywood by the way, and it was just coming to its own then, overseas. It was fast, 400 miles and hour. I think it had a merlinengine, but it had a pilot and they needed a radio operator and a navigator. The pilot had some navigation, but he depended on the navigator, having a navigator. So at that time of the war, it was necessary to train radio navigators. I went then to No. 10 AOS Chatham, New Brunswick for navigation. It was a navigation school and believe it or not the pilots, they were all civilians, they were not air force pilots. And we flew Ansons there. And on that occasion we had, well we did a lot book work, a lot of classroom work, but flying naturally was part of it, daytime flying, nighttime flying. We went there in ‘44 and that was a six-month course. That brought us into graduation in somewhere around March, in that area, as navigators and we all volunteered waiting for a call to go over and thrilled that we would have one flight each in the Mosquito. I loved it, fast, low, fifty feet above the water. That was thrilling and I couldn’t wait to get involved even though at that time I never thought I’d get shot down. Never thought, never once in my mind.

Description

Mr. Thorne describes being trained as a wireless navigator to potentially re-crew the RAF’s Mosquito fighter. He only gets one flight in training before the war ends.

George Thorne

George Thorne was born in North Sydney, Nova Scotia on July 26, 1924. He was the youngest of twelve in a blended family. His father was a magistrate and later became editor of the North Sydney Herald. After his dad became ill, Mr. Thorne delivered newspapers to help support his family. He was a Chief Petty Officer in the cadets which lead to his enlistment in the Royal Canadian Navy, but he later opted for the Air Force, signing up for air crew. Mr. Thorne trained as a wireless air gunner, and then as a wireless navigator with the intention of crewing on Mosquito fighters. The war ended before Mr. Thorne was deployed overseas.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 1:48
Person Interviewed:: George Thorne
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Canada
Branch:: Air Force
Occupation:: Wireless Air Gunner

Language selection

Mosquitoes Needed Wireless Navigators

Heroes Remember