Tribute to the Work of the Royal Air Force Ground Crews

Heroes Remember

Tribute to the Work of the Royal Air Force Ground Crews

Transcript

They lived in tents, they ate bully beef like we all did, they never got any time off. You couldn’t go to a pub at night, there was no pubs in the middle of the desert and those fellas did an absolutely fantastic job. I have nothing but admiration for those, the ground crew guys in the RAF squadrons. They were just a fantastic bunch of guys. Boy, you know, they're tinkering around with your aircraft all the time, and if you come back and told them you shot one down, my God they were so happy, their, their airplane had shot down a German. And I always remember how, what a wonderful bunch of people, those ground crew guys were. They never got any leave back to Cairo like we did every five or six weeks. We got a couple days back to Cairo. They stuck her out right straight through, all the way from... Interviewer: Now they, they were all British, weren’t they? Yep, they were all British. Interviewer: Now how did they feel about you Canadians, you Canadian pilots? Gosh they were, they were just, just great. Just great, they all, we got along fine. They also liked Canadian cigarettes and I got a fair amount of them, that always tuned them up a bit. But now, as far as our pilots went, we had a real league of nations at... You know, one time I can recall we had Canadians, Americans, Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders, a Rhodesian, a fellow from Trinidad. They were from everywhere, and it was always, there wasn't anything to do in the evenings except sit in the mess and tell lies, you know, and once in awhile we did get a little booze in but it didn’t last very long, and sitting around in the evening and hearing all these different nationalities tell about living in their country, and all that sort of stuff. It was, it was most interesting. Interviewer: You must have felt a long way from, from Kentville at times? I sure as hell did.

Description

Mr. Chisholm pays tribute to the Royal Air Force ground crews who serviced the Squadron’s aircraft.

William Lawrence (Red) Chisholm

Mr. Chisholm’s father was a station agent in Berwick, Nova Scotia with the Dominion Atlantic Railway. He moved his family to the station in Windsor, Nova Scotia and then later left the railroad and bought a store in Kentville, Nova Scotia. Mr. Chisholm completed his education in the Kentville school system. He worked briefly with his father after graduation from high school then went to work as a brakeman for the Dominion Atlantic Railway. After enlisting in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940, he took his initial training in Toronto. He was then one of about 500 sent to the first class at British Air Training Program Training School in Regina for a period of two months. After completing his training he moved to a Flying School in London, Ontario. Mr. Chisholm went on to become an ace pilot and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), with bar.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 02:17
Person Interviewed:: William Lawrence (Red) Chisholm
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Branch:: Air Force
Units/Ship:: 92nd Operational Squadron
Rank:: Sergeant
Occupation:: Pilot

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Tribute to the Work of the Royal Air Force Ground Crews

Heroes Remember