Diversion Raids

Heroes Remember

Diversion Raids

Transcript

One of the first trips that we made was the 24th of May, 1944. They couldn't sit on the ground and watch. They had to get into their air craft and take off and get up to your area which meant they had to expend fuel and time and everything else in order to come up against you in case you were the real thing. But as we were only training, we would more or less come into the area and then turn around and come back out. In the meantime, of course, they would have to get back and reload, rearm, refuel and they were also a little bit tired because they'd been alerted and they were full of anxiety. By the time they were on the ground, the real load of bombers would be heading out from England and they, their defences would be half shot already. They didn't have fresh crews waiting at the dispursals ready to take off. They had people who had had a trip and were a little bit disgusted that it was a fake and now they had to sit and oops here comes the real thing and they're not ready. So it had a very useful purpose to sending the crews out on these diversion raids.

Description

Mr. Campbell describes the Allied tactic of faking raids against German assets in coastal France, which forced the enemy to scramble its aircraft, thus expending its limited resources for no reason.

John Campbell

John Campbell was born in October, 1923 in Coleman, Alberta. He was the younger of two brothers. His father was a coal miner and Mr. Campbell credits the mine’s support of the local school for his good education. Following the death of both his parents, he went into the mine. Because of the diverse ethnic mix in Coleman, the onset of war saw many miners return home to serve in their respective forces. He enlisted in 1942, joining the Air Force and becoming a bomber pilot. He finished his full complement of thirty-two missions with the same crew. After the war he remained in the Air Force and was a first responder on the DEW Line.

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