First Bombing Run

Heroes Remember

First Bombing Run

Transcript

You kept radio silence. You, you didn't use your radio at all. The only way you'd . . . you didn't even listen. You listened all the time you're, you were in the air craft. Listened for a message. On one frequency your base, your base station, you listened for that. And well you, if they had decided that the

Picture of Mr. MacWilliam as a young Airmen.

raid was off, then they would send you a message in code to return to base. Well unfortunately I was on the wrong on the wrong frequency but fortunately they didn't tell us to return to base. That night. So we were alright but . . . Oh it wasn't, it wasn't too, too much fun in it. From the time you crossed the coast of France it was, you could see tracer bullets coming up at you from God knows any place. And you didn't know how much were the real stuff and how much was tracers but you, you could see the tracers coming. Fortunately most of them missed us. Or I guess all of them did that night anyway.

Description

Mr. MacWilliam describes his first bombing run across the English Channel. He talks about his duties and responsibilities as a radio operator of a bomber.

Wilbur Carmen (Mick) MacWilliam

Mr. MacWilliam was born August 16, 1918, on a farm in Cape Wolfe, Prince Edward Island. He had four other siblings, three brothers and one sister. He attended school in a one room school house until the age of 18. During the depression the family managed as they were pretty self sufficient on the farm. Mr. MacWilliam left the farm and went to Montreal where he lived with his brother for nine months before the war. He enlisted in the Canadian Air Force in Charlottetown as a radio operator and was sent by train to Brandon, Manitoba, for basic training. From there he went to the 10th repair depot in Calgary, Alberta, where he performed guard duties and then on to Winnipeg for wireless training. Mr. MacWilliam then travelled north of Portage La Prairie to receive training as an air gunner. When his training was complete he was sent home to PEI for leave before being called to Montreal and told he would be shipped to Bermuda to serve on a Catalina flying boat for training. From Bermuda Mr. MacWilliam was sent to England, arriving in Bournemouth, and was assigned to a bombing crew where he carried out his position of wireless operator and gunner. He served on 29 missions and although he had many close calls he was never shot down. In 1943, at the end of his missions he returned to Canada, aboard the Mauritania, for pilot training, with the intention of returning for another tour. Instead he finished up his service as an instructor at the Mount Pleasant bombing and gunnery school air base in Prince Edward Island. After the war he worked at CJCH in Halifax before joining CBC Radio international as a technician.

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