Mistaken Identity

Heroes Remember

Mistaken Identity

Transcript

That would be on like another little experience we had there, usually fly one day and off the next day as a flight leader, and some of the guys that weren't flying, we decided to go fishing down on the Ayeyarwady River, but not with fishing lines, with hand grenades. So we go down with these hand grenades, and the, we had a wing commander flying from group and he decided he wanted to go with us, a little short fellow, Wing Commander Lee. So we go down and we throw these grenades in and the fish come belly up, and so you just go in and gather the fish. Also we had to swim and what not. But with the grenades going off, we made so much noise that the armoury by this time, who had crossed the river and gone down. They heard all this noise behind them, they thought the Japanese had come in behind them and they sent a patrol back to see what was going on, just a bunch of RAF pilots. And were we glad we had a wing commander with us, he took the heat.

Description

Mr. Sproule recalls a near dangerous case of mistaken identity in the jungle of Burma.

Frederick Howard Sproule

Mr. Sproule was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on September 22, 1918. He first served as a cadet with the Seaforth Highlanders before joining the regular service. He switched to the air force as soon as he was able, first being accepted as a gunner, and then into pilot training. After serving as a flight instructor on Harvards, Mr Sproule was shipped to Great Britain where he trained on a Hurricane. Eventually, he piloted a Typhoon as a bomber in the Burma Campaign, helping to drive back the Japanese. His tour finished as the Japanese were completely driven out of Burma.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 01:15
Person Interviewed:: Frederick Howard Sproule
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Burma
Battle/Campaign:: Burma
Branch:: Air Force
Units/Ship:: 42 Squadron
Rank:: Supernumerary Flight Lieutenant
Occupation:: Pilot

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Mistaken Identity

Heroes Remember