Joining the Air Force

Heroes Remember

Joining the Air Force

Transcript

An aircraft came into Regina just to take people for rides. It was a two seater, one for the pilot and one for the... and so my father paid for me to have this ride and this... then I was caught. The air was what I was interested in from them on and when the war came along I... the air force of course was what I would join. Everybody hopes to be a pilot but I ended up as far from the front as I could. Partly, I was in a hurry to get over cause a friend of mine had gone ahead as a gunner and so I took gunner training in Saskatchewan. At Dafoe, Saskatchewan they had a gunnery school and then from there I went overseas and I got over there the latter part of 1942. There was no problem once I got over there. I was sent to a squadron and I was sent to an RAF squadron because at that time the Royal Canadian Air Force was starting to build up to the point, you know, where the whole crew was Canadian and unless you had a Canadian pilot, you ended up in the RAF. I ended with an Australian pilot.

Description

Mr. Fawcett explains why he chose the air force.

Charlie Fawcett

Mr. Fawcett was born June 15, 1922 and grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He first became interested in planes when his father took him to Regina to go for a ride in one. It was this early interest in aviation that led him to sign up with the air force in 1942. He received gunnery training at Dafoe, SK and from there went overseas in the latter part of 1942. He chose to be a rear gunner as it was the fastest way to get overseas. Once in England he was assigned to an RAF squadron, stationed in Yorkshire, that consisted of an Australian pilot and an all English crew. In 1943, while on a trip to Czechoslovakia, they were shot down over Germany by a Messerschmitt. After bailing out of the aircraft Mr. Fawcett landed in a tree. The following day he was taken prisoner by the Germans. Over the next 2 ½ years he was interned in three different POW camps. Mr. Fawcett remained a POW until the end of the war.

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