His Emotional State

Heroes Remember

His Emotional State

Of course this was one of your great worries. The thing that I hadn’t foreseen and which affected me quite a bit, was the fact of being completely cut off from anyone I’d ever known before. In other words, nobody that knew of my existence previously knew whether I was dead or alive and including my parents. You had this feeling of terrible loneliness especially if you came to a messy end and nobody knew you had been alive for all these weeks. There was a terrific urge to, desire to make the facts known to your parents or to somebody but of course that was impossible, and so you just had to endure it. Interviewer: I suppose the only way that you might have gotten that information across would have been to surrender to the Germans. Oh yeah, but that would be fatal for your friends, so that was completely out. It would be acceptable except for that.

In the midst of all that was happening to him, Mr. MacLean was asked if he had experienced any feelings of loneliness or worry about his possible eventual fate.

John Angus MacLean

Mr. MacLean’s father was a farmer in eastern Prince Edward Island. His grandfather came to Canada from Scotland in 1832. Mr. MacLean had three brothers and four sisters. Two of his brothers died, one at the age of fiveand the other at the age of about one year. For the first two years of his higher education, Mr. MacLean attended Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. He went on to the University of British Columbia for his third year of study on a one-year scholarship, majoring in chemistry. In 1938, he returned to Mount Allison University to complete his studies and graduated in 1939. Following graduation, he answered a newspaper advertisement placed by the Royal Air Force for a short-term commission with the RAF. He was chosen as one of two successful Canadian candidates. But, before he could leave for England, the Second World War had started and he was offered a commission in the Royal Canadian Air Force, which he accepted. Mr. MacLean’s bomber was brought down over Germany and he and his crew were forced to bail out. Mr. MacLean landed just inside occupied Holland and was moved along the Comet Line through Holland, Belgium and France to freedom in Spain. He’s an excellent story-teller with emphasis on detail. Mr. MacLean also had an outstanding post-war career as a politician. He served for 10 terms as a Member of Parliament and a term as Premier of his home province of Prince Edward Island.