They came from as far away as
Australia and New Zealand, young men eager to fight the Second Great War from
the air. They landed in a small New Brunswick community called Pennfield Ridge,
a flat stretch of highway in the midst of blueberry fields, sixty kilometers
southwest of Saint John.
Here they would spend several months training and learning to work together as
air crews; crews that would be assigned to fight the war in Europe and the Middle
East. They would mix with the people of the small communities surrounding Pennfield.
They would play here; some would fall in love, marry and make their home
here; some would take new wives back to their country; some would die and be
buried here.
They were young. Very young. In their late teens and early twenties. With the
increasing need for aircrew, the age limits were adjusted to include those from
17 ˝ years to 33 years. Susan, in Australia, remembers her 17-year-old brother
going off to an unknown destination. He was one of those who died here.
During the 1930s Canada and Britain spent much time in political negotiations
for training pilots and aircrew for the Royal Air Force (RAF). In 1939, at the
beginning of war, they finally came to an agreement and on December 17 Canada,
Britain, Australia and New Zealand signed an agreement, known in Canada as the
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP).
The start of WWII made the need to train pilots and aircrew even more urgent.
Canada was the ideal location as it was away from the war in Europe and close
to the resources available in the United States. Pennfield Ridge was one of 151
training schools located across Canada, and one of three in New Brunswick. Today
there is little to remind us of what was there. The tarmac is there but alders,
grass and blueberry bushes have grown up around it. All you can see as you drive
by is a strange chunk of concrete rising above the bushes and three two story
houses on the opposite side of the road.
Sixty years later, who remembers? There are few left to tell the stories. I have
a very limited recollection of the Air Base. I remember the bus from Saint John
stopping there, when we were on our way home from visiting my sailor father when
his ship was in port. I remember the airman who helped my grandmother down from
the St. George bus. I hit him and told him to leave my Mammy alone and he called
me Spitfire. I remember the stories of the murder in our village.
For some strange reason, I still remember every time I pass the site. I see the
three houses that I always thought were homes for the base commanders. Now I
have learned they were for Department of Transport personnel associated with the
base. There is the huge concrete “thing” rising out of the ground. I have learned
it was where the gunners conducted their practice. Thousands of people drive by
every day and have no idea of the significance of this location. I felt the need
to know more and to tell the story to the generations that do not know.
Sadly, little is written about the Pennfield base. Most books and articles are
about the bases in the West or Ontario. One author referred to Pennfield Ridge
as the least successful of the transplanted Operational Training Units (OTUs).
Weather, generally fog, was often referred to as a problem, closing the
base for days or weeks.
THE BEGINNING
In November of 1940,
a half million-dollar contract was awarded to build the No.2 Air Navigation
School at Pennfield Ridge. To the many small communities in the area, still
struggling out of the depression, this had an economic impact they could
never have imagined.
The base opened with little fanfare in the summer of 1941. It was expected
that advance training for air observers and navigators would be the focus of
the base. After the fall of France this changed and, in 1942, the British
decided to move four of their OTUs to the safety of Canada. Number 34 OTU
was moved from Grenoch, Scotland to Pennfield Ridge. Here men were put
together as four man crews and trained for operations over Europe and the
Middle East.
The RCAF and the RAF shared responsibility for operation of the base and
training school. The British arrived with their families and searched out
accommodations in small communities near the base. As Maynard Mckay
remembers it, "Every cottage and room for miles up and down the
coast became home for these people. Families of three were sometimes crowded
into the spare room of a local home. Pennfield Ridge went from a small community
of 188 people in 1939 to approximately 5000 by 1942." The population on
the airbase was greater than all the surrounding communities put together.
McKay also remembers, "The British brought their lorries with them. The
steering wheel was on the wrong side and they were not used to driving on the
ice we had. They were sliding all over the place and into the ditch. They had to
switch over to our type of vehicles."
The British also brought their "Batmen". Roy Swanston was one of them
and he still lives at Pennfield. Their time at the Base was spent serving the
British officers. They pressed uniforms, polished shoes, sewed on badges, made
beds and carried out a host of duties required to keep the officers in the
manner to which they were accustomed.
The base was a complete community with a hospital, theatre, dance hall, sports
facilities and accommodations for thousands of trainees. It straddled the number
one highway, with most buildings being on the north side. Private businesses
expanded to meet their personal needs. Cottages were built to accommodate those
operating the school. Three restaurants were located on the south side of the road.
The bus from Saint John to St. Stephen stopped there. "Yes, there was lots
of money around ," said Maynard MacKay , "but there was rationing
and very little that the locals could spend it on."
The base put on parties for the school kids; there was a Santa Claus, parades and
ice cream – a treat not widely available off the base. Local theatres, dance halls
and social clubs also entertained the staff and trainees. Some met the woman they
would marry.
One meeting was not so pleasant. A young RAF Sgt. was accused of murder in the death
of a young woman from Black’s Harbour. He was tried and the jury found him guilty. He
was the last person to be hung in Charlotte County. It is said that his ghost still
haunts the St. Andrews Courthouse.
Many of those who married and stayed here are no longer around to tell the stories.
Two charming men in their eighties shared theirs with me. Roy Swanston was a Batman,
from Lincoln, who met the love of his life and came back to stay. Across the room
of a dance hall, Canadian Pilot John Morden spotted the woman who would be his wife
for 60 years.
Training
The BCATP united thousands
from Commonwealth Countries, as well as Free French, Polish, Italian, Norwegian,
Belgian and Dutch. They were trained as aircrews and then sent to Britain to be
part of the bombing raids on Europe.
John Morden, a Canadian pilot serving with the RAF, was returned from active duty
in Egypt to become an instructor at Pennfield. Men arrived from training facilities
around the country and formed into crews consisting of Pilot, Navigator, Wireless
Operator and Air Gunner. As Morden put it, "This was not done scientifically.
They were lined up, told to meet each other and decide who they wanted to fly with."
The crews spent 12 weeks training together then shipped out to make room for a new group.
Crews practiced their flying and navigating skills by doing "cross-country",
flights over New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Bombing practice was conducted on an island
in Lake Utopia and over the Bay of Fundy. A "crash boat", manned by air force
personnel, was kept at Black’s Harbour. They had the task of rescuing downed flyers from
the Bay.
There were crashes in the bay, on the base, in the hills of Charlotte County and Nova
Scotia. Records at the BCATP Museum, in Brandon Manitoba, indicate 35 men died while
assigned to No.34 OTU at Pennfield. Some were never found but their names are inscribed
on the Ottawa War Memorial. Some were returned home. Two RAF men and one Royal Australian
Air Force (RAAF) man are buried in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia where there was a gunnery and
bombing school.
Ten airmen are buried in the Rural Cemetery in St.George, New Brunswick. Headstones
from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission mark the sites of these men: one RCAF, two
RAAF, four RAF and three RNZAF.
What were their stories? Information was not readily available on all of these men.
The Australian and New Zealand Governments were prompt and generous in sharing with me.
Sgt. Evan Williams RAAF, is remembered by his sister in Australia, the last remaining member
of his family. When she received the photos I sent she shared his story with her daughter. She
remembers a 17-year-old brother gone off to war. His letters home were general and censored so
his location was never known until his parents received a letter reporting him missing in a crash
over New Brunswick. He and his crewmates were found six months later, near Minto, N.B.
The Canadian member was returned home and Pilot Officer N. C. Harris RAF, Sgt. Donald Stuart
Bates RNZAF, age 21 and Williams are buried here. Bates had been in Pennfield for only a few
weeks. The families of these young men connected and corresponded for awhile.
Pilot Officer Geoffrey Norriss, RNZAF, had been an active member of his community and a
committed volunteer with the Boy Scout movement. He wanted to be a pilot and at first
they turned him down because of his age (33) and in spite of his high performance marks.
He trained for all positions while in Canada and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer
Navigator, November 20, 1942. On January 23, 1943, while serving as navigator, his plane
crashed near St. Stephen. He was 37 years old and left behind a wife and son in New
Zealand. He and one of the two Canadians, PO Bayden Willams RCAF, of Calgary also
rest here.
Sgt. Gerald St. George Putt RNZAF was 23 years old when his plane crashed while trying
an emergency landing after take off at the Base. He had arrived in Canada in February
1942 and died November 22, 1942. He and the other crewmember, Sgt. D. Smith RAF are
buried in St. George.
Information about Rogers RAAF and Senciall RAF has not been readily available.
Rogers died at age 21, one year after enlisting.
St. George Legion, Branch #40 of the Royal Canadian Legion, has installed flags at
the cemetery and honours the memory of these ten men. On Remembrance Day, a small
Canadian flag flew from each grave, three flags on the main poles flew at half-mast
and a wreath was placed in remembrance of them.
The number of trainees who passed through Pennfield is not known. Veterans Affairs
Canada lists 131,553 Air Crew graduates of the BCATP program in Canada. Nearly
50,000 of them were pilots. The ground organization responsible for this program
consisted of over 104,000 men and women.
VE Day, May 8, 1945 was possible because of the commitment of these young men and
others, like them, who passed through our training schools. Winston Churchill is
said to have referred to the BCATP as Canada’s greatest contribution to the Allied
victory and a letter from US President Franklin D. Roosevelt described Canada’s role
as the "aerodrome of democracy."
At the end of the war, the buildings were dismantled and sold. The tarmac and the
hangars remained for a number of years. RCAF Heavy transport flew out of here for
a few years. Trans Canada Airlines, precursor to Air Canada, used the airport until
they moved to Saint John in the 1950s. After the hangars were gone, the tarmac was
used for car racing and now has come to an ignominious end as a place for drying
seaweed.
There is no memorial or sign indicating that people lived and died there. There is
nothing to suggest the importance of those blueberry fields relative to the winning
of WWII.
The morning after my visit to the site was clear and crisp. As I packed up my car in
the darkness at Deadman’s Harbour, I could see the lights of Eastport, Maine, twinkling,
miles away across the bay. There was a sliver of a moon in the cloudless sky - a perfect
morning. Minutes later I was driving across Pennfield Ridge. There was none of the fog
that usually blankets the area. I thought of those young men who bravely faced fog, snow
and wind as they prepared for their "fight for democracy." I said to them,
"You would love it today. It’s a perfect day for flying, boys."
SOURCE: Nellie Allen wrote an article entitled "The forgotten base; Few
remember that thousands of young men trained, played and sometimes died at
Pennfield" that appeared in "New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal"
(Saint John, NB) on September 17, 2005. The story appearing here is the original
article or as Nellie herself said on November 12th, 2008: "Here is the
version that I like vs the shortened one in the paper... this talks about
the people."
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