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Description
Mr. Yarnell talks about how involved the ground crews were in the maintenance and watchfulness over what they considered to be ‘their’ birds.
Cyrill St. Clair (Cy) Yarnell
M. Yarnell est né le 9 août 1920 à Carlow, en Irlande. Il a déménagé au Canada à l'âge de 8 ans. Il s'est enrôlé dans l'Aviation royale du Canada (ARC) en 1940 à l'âge de 20 ans. Il a suivi la formation initiale de pilote à Victoriaville (Québec), où il a appris à piloter le Fleet Finch pour enfin maîtriser le Harvard. Il a suivi la formation d'instructeur de vol à Trenton et formé des pilotes d'un grand nombre de pays. Après avoir été instructeur pendant un an, M. Yarnell a été envoyé outre-mer. Il a effectué des missions aériennes au-dessus de l'Afrique du Nord, de l'Italie et de l'Allemagne et participé aux batailles de la vallée du Liri et de Monte Cassino. Après la guerre, il est demeuré dans l'Aviation royale du Canada (ARC). Lorsqu'il a pris sa retraite de l'ARC en 1975, M. Yarnell avait le grade de colonel. Il est membre de l'Association des Forces aériennes du Canada et participe activement aux activités du musée de l'Aviation de Trenton. M. Yarnell et son épouse, Phyllis, ont trois enfants, sept petits-enfants et un arrière-petit-enfant.
Transcription
Well, they would very quickly realize if the pilot had operated the engine correctly, you know. And in speaking to the aircrew they would be able to know how much knowledge they really had about the engine. In our squadron we each had our own aircraft assigned to us and an air man, an airframe mechanic and an aero-engine mechanic assigned so that I had two air men who took care of quote, unquote, my aircraft. In 601 Squadron it was a Scottish lad and a Welsh guy and those fellows really, my life depended on them and they took care of that aircraft magnificently. They would even beeswax it to make it nice and shiny, you know, oh great. And we had a very close association. Whenever I got a package from home I would always go down to their tent and give them the chocolate bars and things. As a matter of fact I was paraded before my flight commander for consorting with the troops. I wasted no time telling him what I thought of him. But these, these fellows, your life depended on them and Bishop is quite correct, they would know how knowledgeable the operator was.