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Wellingtons

Heroes Remember

Wellingtons

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Transcript
And then we went to Northern Ireland for an operational training training unit. And this is where, at the operation training units they train you for combat. You're gonna be flying the type of aircraft you'll be on, you know, until they change new ones and this is where you get your crew. We had an all Canadian, all sergeant crew. They were from Salmon Arm, B.C., Toronto, Winnipeg, two from Winnipeg, me, and the navigator was from outside Moncton. We were flying Wellingtons. They were England's, at the outbreak of the war, they were England's heaviest bomber. The thing, the aircraft was around 60 feet long and a wing span of 85 feet. They were twin engine. They were geodetic construction which is a diamond shaped construction, metal, with a fabric cover. So there wasn't too much places to hide when the bullets started to fly, it didn't deflect too much ammunition. Interviewer: No armour? No cloth doesn't stop too many bullets. The armoured plate we had, I had, the pilot was there of course and there was an armoured plate then behind me and the navigator that was it. There was none where the radar because the radar was an extra thing they put in the airplane. There was no radar, no armoured plate between the navigator and the radar operator. As far as radio went you're listening all the time for information from home. If you got in trouble or you found a target then it had to be coded. I did the coding, sent it out by Morse code to the home base. Radar, you're always looking for ships and the guns. Your neck was always on the swivel because you were lookin' to see whose with you and who isn't. You took turns in the turret because there was three of us as a rule that were "WAGS" as we call them, wireless operator air gunners. So when we had three WAGS in the crew, you would spend, you normally were out for eight, sometimes nine hours. So you spent time on the radio, time on the radar and time sittin' back in the tail on the guns. We carried torpedoes sometimes, we carried depth chargers and bombs and ammunition of course. There were, originally, there were four guns in the tail, they were all 303's, and two in the nose, but because of the torpedoes, and then they decided that they were gonna put a search light in the old aircraft, and this was to go in on a submarine and drop the search light and you'd blind the crew that's running guns. So they took out the guns in the nose, we didn't have any. Then we had two what we called scare guns, one on each side. But they were hanging on the wall like they do at home and when you needed them you unhooked them and shoved them out. You didn't expect to hit anything, but you'd scared them. You'd scare them off, you'd never hit anything.
Description

At the onset of WWII, the Wellington was Britain’s largest and heaviest bomber. Mr. Doiron gives us an in depth look at how things were made and done on board this canvas covered plane.

Leonard Doiron

Mr. Doiron was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island on January 21st 1923. His father worked in wholesale and retail until he was injured and opened his own shoe repair shop. Mr. Doiron joined the Air Force on February 15th 1941 where he began his training in Chatham, New Brunswick. In June 1941 he was sent to Initial Training School in Victoriaville, Québec. Mr. Doiron was part of the top 10 aspiring pilots and was picked to become one. He was later sent back to Chatham where he was washed out for inconsistent flying. The RAFFC (Royal Air Force Ferry Command) noticed his Morse code abilities and had him transferred to Dorval, Québec. He was then stationed in Bournemouth, England. He did his Operational Training in Northern Ireland where he was assigned to a Wellington air plane crew. He flew many missions over the Gulf of Toranto (Italy) - about 300 hours of Operational Flying Time and was promoted to Warrant Officer Class 1. He then went to Cairo, Egypt and to Palestine for a short time before being sent back home on the Louis Pasteur. Mr. Doiron retired from the service in the 1970's.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
04:02
Person Interviewed:
Leonard Doiron
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Location/Theatre:
Europe
Branch:
Air Force
Units/Ship:
Royal Air Force Ferry Command (RAFFC)
Rank:
Sergeant
Occupation:
Radio Operator

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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