The cost of bravery
Posted By GENE LOCKARD SPECIAL TO THE LINDSAY POST
Posted 3 months ago
In the latter part of 1944, our bomber crew, along with three other crews were sent to 433 squadron, Skipton-on- Swale, Yorkshire U. K.
One of these crews was captained by S/L (Squadron Leader) H. K. Stinson DFC, and he was to be flight leader for "A" flight, which we would be part of.
The previous flight leader had either finished his tour of 30 operations, or had gone missing. I do not know what previous squadron S/L Stinson and crew called their base , but found out that they had 24 ops in their books when arriving at Skipton. Somewhere along the way S/L Stinson picked up the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross). This Air Force honour award was not given out lightly, and most recipients travelled to Buckingham Palace where King George VI would pin the award on their left lapel. Getting back to the dales of Yorkshire, where Canadian 6 group Bomber Command was located. The group consisted of 14 squadrons, and a Pathfinder squadron. There were two squadrons based on each air-dome, our sister squadron was 424, the Tigers, we were the porcupines. Arriving at Skipton and wandering about, we saw that the base was well equipped with the Mk III Halifax, a very good bomber.
Also noted was the amount of trips to the French and German countryside by the number of little bombs painted on their noses. Each bomb represented an "op". Then, the most popular paintings were well endowed ladies.
After getting assigned to the Nissen huts, where we would be quartered and all the necessary paperwork done, we were given a week's leave. Train travel was free as long as you had a leave pass, so most headed for London for the sights and sounds of the big city.
When we returned, lo and behold the Halifax bombers were gone and in their place were new Lancasters! We as a crew had to be familiarized with these awesome new aircrafts, especially our pilot, Johnnie Johnstone (his name was Ronald but we already had a Ronnie, our rear gunner, so our pilot became "Johnnie"). I was the wireless operator, and had to be at the set every time the aircraft was airborne. Johnnie had a pilot instructor along for the first time or two up, and I swear his first landing was his best ever.
Those "Lancs" were easy to fly, and coming in for a landing (empty) the throttles could be cut back somewhat, and she would seem to float down to the runway.
On February 1, 1945, the first operation for the new "Lancs" was a raid on Ludwigshaven, with seven a/c from 433 included in the force. One of these, Lancaster BM-A was flown by S/L Stinson and crew. Over the target their "Lanc" was damaged by flak. No one would know the pilot's thoughts but it appeared that he was trying to fly the crippled bomber back to England, which he did, and then tried to make it on to Skipton. Things went bad shortly before getting there. Two of the crew were able to bail out before the bomber went out of control at about 3,000 feet and crashed near Dishforth only a few miles from Skipton. S/L Stinson and the remainder of the crew were killed. They are buried in Stonefall Cemetery, Harrogate, Yorkshire. The chances of finishing a tour of 30 operations in a Bomber Command was not good, but when young, it is always someone else. You had your crew members and a few others as friends, but others were just faces coming and going.
I mentioned the two other crews who came to Skipton the same day P/O J. P. Farrel and crew were lost March 13, 1945 on a daylight mining trip to the Kattegat (between Denmark and Sweden). F/O R. J. Grisdale and crew were downed by a flak on a daylight trip to Leipzig. We were on that trip and were close enough to them to read their letters. They were hit, flipped over, then straight down. Their bomb load exploded when they hit the ground 18,000 feet below.
Only that morning, back at the base, we were all standing around waiting for the crew bus to take us out to the bomber dispersals, and one of Grisdale's young gunners showed me a photo of his dog back home, a nice big collie. He would never see his dog again, nor his 20th birthday.
I have the book at home, called They Shall Grow Not Old.Its pages list approximately 18,000 names of Royal Canadian Airforce Airmen (and Airwomen) who lost their lives during World War II, mostly from enemy action, but a terrible number were also killed during training. All are listed as to date, time and reason. If from enemy action for instance, Fighter Command or Bomber Command would be, (I will copy one down) Grisdale, Robert James. F/O J89832 from Winnipeg, Manitoba, killed in action on April 10, 1945 at age 22 in #433 Porcupine Squadron, target Leipzig, Germany. Lancaster a/c was hit by predicted flak, flipped over and spiraled to the ground where the bomb load exploded.
I recall that day, hardly a cloud in the sky, and looking down from 20,000 feet at the German countryside, admiring the neat little red roofed houses and the well kept farms. To think that the people looking up hated our guts, and called us terrorists, forgetting all the while that their boys had tried to do the same to London and other cities.
I have been going on about some of the time we spent on the squadron and in doing so, telling what I remember of our flight leader, S/L Stinson.
My wife and I moved to Lindsay in 1998 after living 51 years at our former home in Ormsby, in the Coe Hill area south of Bancroft. We found out later that Lindsay was the hometown of H. K. Stinson. Well, here was a local hero.
There were so many, hundreds or thousands of gutsy young Navy, Army, and Air Force boys who faced the jaws of death time and time again, sometimes noted, mostly never. So many of these are buried in the hundreds of cemeteries worldwide, and thousands are listed as "Having no known grave."
Lindsay resident Gene Lockard was a member of 433 squadron.
