The Task of Paratrooping

Well this was Canadians, Force 136 and there are several of them that live right here in Vancouver. They would, sometimes they would go in by boat on the other end and come up in behind but this was up in the north part and we'd drop these gliders which were the point of no return and then they would go in and they were experienced in demolition or blowing up bridges and disrupting things behind the lines and obviously they fit in with the atmosphere, you know, with being with other nationalities but they were, a lot of Canadians were on this force and in some cases we did paratrooping where a group were being besieged, hemmed in, and you would have to drop these paratroopers in it to a very confined area to bolster up the people that were there, to relieve them a bit, you know, that sort of thing. So there was quite a bit of paratrooping done as well.

Mr. Dungey explains the situation of having to drop paratroopers into confined areas

George Dungey

George Dungey, the youngest of three children, was born in 1924 near Barrie, Ontario. His father, a First World War Veteran, was a laborer, machinist and semi-pro ballplayer. Before they enlisted, Mr. Dungey and his older brother operated a bakery. Following his brother, he enlisted in the Air Force when he was seventeen and a half, at Owen Sound. Mr. Dungey hoped to be bomber crew; following his Canadian training on Tiger Moths at Virden, Manitoba and Ansons at Souris, Manitoba, he received his pilot's wings. In England, he trained in Oxfords and Dakotas. It was as a Dakota pilot that Mr. Dungey was deployed to the Far East, where he joined the newly formed 435 Squadron at Impal, India. His squadron performed a number of valuable roles. It delivered supplies to British land forces in Burma, paradropped assault troops where needed, towed gliders to combat areas, and ferried the sick and wounded to safety. Mr. Dungey remained in the RCAF after the war, most notably serving in 412 Squadron, flying Canadian dignitaries to several different international destinations. After retiring from the RCAF, Mr. Dungey joined Transport Canada as a civil aviation inspector.