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Missions and Deceit

Heroes Remember

Missions and Deceit

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Transcript
We'd go on patrol looking for trouble and we would... Our patrol went from Malta along the south coast of Sicily, around the toe, up to Naples, around the Isle of Capri, back down to Stromboli, which was an active volcano, a movie made of it, go around Stromboli and then go home across the narrowest point in the toe of Italy, just before, and then go home to Malta. But nothing, we didn't see anything, eh. There are nights we went out that you saw things. But we carried, see, we carried torpedoes, but if you were carrying torpedoes you sat at home with the torpedoes waiting for people like us that were out looking for ships, convoys, anything that was moving, other than our own. And you'd send a report back to the base then they'd come out with the torpedoes. Otherwise, if we weren't going on torpedo run, we carried depth charges and looking for submarines. You drop the depth charges of course on the submarines. And a couple of times we went bombing. We went from Benghazi in the desert over to one place to bomb. Then we left Malta one night and went to bomb a little place called Marsala on the south coast of Sicily. But it was funny. When we were flying out of Malta, when we first started, the Italians had a, a gun in Sicily and and there's an island of Pantelleria, it was just off the coast, they had a search light. The gun would fire straight up. The search light would stay at about a forty-five degree angle and the pilots used to say, "All we have to do is stay in the middle and we're on course." They didn't even have to look at the compass. That changed about the middle of ‘43. The gun followed us and the search light followed us one night and we said, "There's not Italians running that." The Germans had taken over. Because this was the time, there was a, a story out on the man who never was, or they picked him up, the body up off the coast of Sicily. And they had the body in a submarine and put it ashore, or off of Gibraltar I should say. When we landed in Gibraltar you'd get up in the morning and look the newspaper and it would say, "So many aircraft come in this way and so many went out that way." There was a guy sittin' on the roof across, in Spain, across the border, which was just a big gate and he'd report all this stuff to the Germans, eh. So he picked the body up. They knew he would, and the body had papers in it that they were gonna invade Crete, not Sicily. So the Germans had moved stuff into Italy at this time because they were sure that they were going to invade Italy. They moved them out and took some stuff over to Crete. That's why it was bad enough when they went into Sicily, but not as bad as they expected because that actually worked, yeah.
Description

Mr. Doiron describes the air reconnaissance missions he experienced while based in the Mediterranean Basin. He tells a tale of deceit that fooled the Germans and changed the outcome of the Sicilian Campaign.

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:
04:10
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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