Joy in Providing A Cigarette

Dysentery was a big thing in the jungle and that's where you just had the shakes and everything else and you'd light a cigarette for them, they always wanted a cigarette and so what we started doing was on our drops, we had a big bin and we had issue of Woodbines which some didn't like them as opposed to the Canadian cigarettes, for at that time you could get them for a dollar a carton, people send them to you. So people were encouraged to get cigarettes from their relatives and what have you and they were all put in this big bin and then we tried to make it a practice dropping cigarettes on a lot of the flights and the word afterwards was that they really appreciated everything that we did, particularly the cigarettes, but you'd have to light a cigarette for some of them because they shook so badly and in the back of the aircraft you'd go back and see them and they were there in bad shape.

Among the injured, Mr. Dungey shares a story of providing cigarettes - Canadian brand or otherwise!

George Dungey

George Dungey, the youngest of three children, was born in 1924 near Barrie, Ontario. His father, a First World War Veteran, was a laborer, machinist and semi-pro ballplayer. Before they enlisted, Mr. Dungey and his older brother operated a bakery. Following his brother, he enlisted in the Air Force when he was seventeen and a half, at Owen Sound. Mr. Dungey hoped to be bomber crew; following his Canadian training on Tiger Moths at Virden, Manitoba and Ansons at Souris, Manitoba, he received his pilot's wings. In England, he trained in Oxfords and Dakotas. It was as a Dakota pilot that Mr. Dungey was deployed to the Far East, where he joined the newly formed 435 Squadron at Impal, India. His squadron performed a number of valuable roles. It delivered supplies to British land forces in Burma, paradropped assault troops where needed, towed gliders to combat areas, and ferried the sick and wounded to safety. Mr. Dungey remained in the RCAF after the war, most notably serving in 412 Squadron, flying Canadian dignitaries to several different international destinations. After retiring from the RCAF, Mr. Dungey joined Transport Canada as a civil aviation inspector.