An Unusual Welcome to England
Heroes Remember
Transcript
We arrived to Britain and the first thing we saw was Spitfires flying over the ship and
that got everyone very excited that this was the plane that they wanted to fly and
so we were put on a train and were on our way down to Bournemouth.
That was more or less the city that most Canadians were stationed and
on the way, what they did, they, I don't know, about 4 miles from Bournemouth
they stopped the train and we had to walk the rest of the way and
that was quite a chore because we had all our baggage and so we had to march in.
The thought behind it, they didn't want the Germans to know that there was a new group of
Canadian pilots arriving in Britain, but we found out a day later that
they did because a 109 came down main street of Bournemouth,
dropped a bomb, just saying hello to these Canadian pilots coming over from Canada.
Description
Mr. Wilson describes arriving in Scotland, traveling by train to Bournemouth and being welcomed there by a German dive bomber.
Gordon Wilson
Gordon Wilson was born on December 5, 1917 in Limerick, Saskatchewan. The Royal Canadian Air Force was no longer accepting recruits when he enlisted so he joined the Royal Regina Rifles. Six months later, Mr. Wilson joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at Brandon, Manitoba. His first wartime deployment saw him serving in North Africa near El Alamein, where he initially flew Hurricanes in a Royal Air Force squadron. He later piloted Spitfire 9’s in Sicily, Italy and the Middle East. After the war, Mr. Wilson completed a university degree and became a museum curator.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 1:29
- Person Interviewed:
- Gordon Wilson
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Branch:
- Air Force
- Rank:
- Flying Officer
- Occupation:
- Pilot
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