From WW2 - Flying the mosquito

A friend of mine is related to a Second World War pilot, sadly shot down over France and killed in 1941, who flew mosquitos. He did his training in Canada, at the wonderfully named Moose Jaw Saskatchewan. He was a keen photographer and documented his time in Canada (no doubt it was a big adventure for a 19 year old lad from Bexley in Kent), both training, and having fun taking photos of their flying antics, colleagues and fun times. My friend wanted to get the photos to a wider audience, and asked me to scan them, and we uploaded them to a Flickr page, here:Jim Anderson - 21 Squadron RAF

 

It was quite an emotional thing to do, learn about this chap Jim, and his co-pilot Art ( a Canadian) from this pile of prints in a tatty old shoe box, in the knowledge that neither of them lasted long after training. I scanned them and uploaded them with the captions that were either in the album (those that hadn’t fallen out) or written on the back.

Edited February 24, 2020 by stuart_pratt

Thanks for these photos stuart. The few, the very few, honored by Churchill and thanked by the world.

Thank you for sharing these lovely images. Hard to imagine there was a war going when you're on the other side of the world.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. It's perhaps surprising that the airman sadly lost his life so soon, as the losses sustained by Mosquitos were very low due to their superior height and speed. I think one of the aircraft is an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, a heavy bomber which quickly became obsolete and was perhaps being used as a transport plane or target tug.

The fuselage without the wings in another photo is a Vickers Wellington bomber

Thanks. A wonderful tribute,

I think one of the aircraft is an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, a heavy bomber which quickly became obsolete and was perhaps being used as a transport plane or target tug.

 

I think I've read in a memoir from a Canadian pilot (whose name I can't recall right now :( ) that he trained on Whitleys, particularly night flight operations. I'd have to look it up in my library to confirm though.

 

Guy Gibson (of the famous Dams Raid) died in a Mosquito crash in the Netherlands. It is suggested that it was due to inexperience with the aircraft.

He flew Hampden Bombers early in the war before switching to Lancasters.

I really appreciate this.

Thank you very much for posting.

I remembered incorrectly. The pilot I was thinking of was Bob Fowler, but he trained on Lockheed (Vega) Venturas at Pennfield Ridge, New Brunswick.

The book I referred to is "Flying Under Fire", a collection of stories of Canadian fliers during WW2.

 

From one account it looks like Fairey Battles were used as "Drogue" tugs by the RCAF