The Halifax bomber
Heroes Remember
The Halifax bomber
Transcript
Video of Veteran showing his bombing log book.
carried. Well, by today's standards, it was pretty small. The wingspan of 103 feet, the length of about 72, and four motors of course. And our craft normally would carry 8,000 pounds of, of bombs. Of course, now, this varied depending on where you were going. If you’re going on long missions, you had to cut your bombs down seriously to add petrol tanks. And we had, our plane had petrol tanks in the wing, and there were, there were drop tanks too, and, which carried extra load, and you dropped the whole thing as, as it was emptied. But normally we carried about, about four ton, about 8,000 pounds.Description
Mr. West now serving aboard a Halifax bomber describes the different models of the Halifax, the specifications of the aircraft and some of the differences between it and the Lancaster bomber.
James West
Mr. West was born in June 1924, in the town of Hopewell, New Brunswick. He is he youngest of three children, one brother and one sister. Mr. West grew up on the family farm and attended school completing grade 11. In June 1942, he decided to leave school and enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force in Moncton, New Brunswick.
Mr. West took his basic training in Lachine, Quebec. After basic training he spent the winter in Mont Joli, Quebec, where they had a bombing and gunnery school. Mr. West got his first taste of flying near Trois Rivieres, getting 8-12 hours of instruction before getting a chance to solo in a Tiger Moth, and a Finch Fleet. Unfortunately Mr. West washed out of flying school and was transferred back to Lachine, Quebec, for the purpose of being retrained as a bomb aimer. He then was transferred to Fingal, Ontario, to take up training as a bomber/gunner.
Mr. West left Canada for England, via Halifax, on board the vessel the Empress of Scotland, taking nearly six days to cross the Atlantic, arriving in Bournemouth, England. Not long after he was transfered near Stratford on Avon where he underwent updated training to the Wellington aircraft.
Mr. West completed his training and was assigned to serve with the 420 Squadron in the Yorkshire Valley. From December 1944 until May 1945 Mr. West took part in 31 missions. He completed his tour of service just before the end of the war in Europe. He signed up to serve in Japan but the war there ended while he was on route back in Canada.
After the war Mr. West married his girlfriend within a year of his discharge from the Air Force and attended Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. After graduation he got work in Scarborough, Ontario, with an Engineering firm as a technician and designer. Later he was able to transfer to Moncton where he retired next door to the farm that he grew up on.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 2:59
- Person Interviewed:
- James West
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Branch:
- Air Force
- Units/Ship:
- 420 Squadron
- Rank:
- Bomb Aimer/ Assistant Navigator
- Occupation:
- Bomb aimer/ Assistant Navigator
Related Videos
Bombing and gunnery school
Mr. West talks of his time in Fingal, Ontario, while he attended a bombing and gunnery training centre.
Learning of a new aircraft, the Wellington bomber
After Mr. West gets settled in England and his new air force base near Stratford on Avon, he and the flight crew have to adapt their previous training to that on a new aircraft, the Wellington bomber. Mr. West tells how his pilot's inexperience with the Wellington almost caused them to crash.
The loss of two engines
Mr. West tells us how the plane he was travelling on lost two engines while taking enemy anti-aircraft flak. The pilot had prepared the crew to parachute from the plane but he managed to keep the aircraft in the air long enough to make a unannounced emergency landing back in Britain.
Dangers of close formation flying
During bombing runs, air craft would fly dangerously close to one another. Mr. West talks about the dangers of bumping into another plane while large groups of aircraft were flying together.
Bombing alone
Technology has advanced over the years, but during the Second World War sometimes it was more a distraction. Mr. West recalls during one bombing run that his pilot, annoyed by the static on the airwaves, ordered that the radios be turned off, subsequently missing the order to turn back to base. Mr. West's plane was the only one who made the target and dropped their bombs.
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