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Remembering the unfriendly skies
WWII veteran Jack Henderson recalls piloting a B-17 in enemy territory JUSTIN BEDDALL newsroom@nsnews.com
The Royal Air Force’s 214 Squadron only flew bombing missions in the dark. But the cover of night didn’t make them totally invisible as they zeroed in on German cities and industrial targets during the Second World War. Anti-aircraft guns lit up the blackness with explosive orange bursts and the Luftwaffe’s “night fighters,” equipped with sophisticated radar and weaponry, hunted for Allied aircraft in the dark. Despite the danger lurking during the nighttime sorties, Canadian pilot Jack Henderson never second guessed his decision to sign up for the Royal Canadian Air Force. “I refused to join the army and the navy,” explained the 96-yearold veteran, sitting inside his North Vancouver apartment, flipping through his wartime photo album. “I knew too much about the ocean and had too many uncles who were in the First World War in the army! That made up my mind.” So when war broke out in Europe, Henderson marched to the local recruiting office and signed up for the air force. He was 20. “But I had a problem. I had no flying experience,” he said. “I thought, bang, I’d be in airplanes. ... They wouldn’t even talk to me.” Instead, recruiters coveted the thousands of Canadian pilots who’d already earned airtime as bush pilots or commercial captains. Henderson waited two years before he landed at a Canadian training base to earn his wings. After learning about flying, bombing and gunnery, he was sent to Liverpool, England, in 1944. It took another six months of training aboard an assortment of
planes and bombers before he was assigned to an RAF crew. “The 214 Squadron was where I became very active,” he recalled. Henderson piloted a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, an American-built high-altitude airplane. “We were the only squadron flying an American four-engine bomber,” he explained. “I loved it. They were an amazing aircraft. Huge, 1,400-horsepower each engine, power, power, power… as a matter of fact, we came home once on two engines.” Henderson has a few photos of his crew and the plane in his album – the only wartime mementos he has left after a flood destroyed a trove of keepsakes he’d stored in cardboard boxes. “We weren’t allowed to carry a camera,” he said, with a mischievous grin. But inside the front pocket of his uniform he kept a small, folding camera that looked like a cigarette case. “Every once in a while I could sneak a picture, as you can tell ... but everything else was forbidden, particularly of the aircraft and things like that.” During the bombing raids, Henderson’s plane flew 2,000 feet above the “stream” of bombers, which ranged in number according to the mission from 250 to 1,000 planes, and used electronic countermeasures to jam German radio signals, among other things. “Special work to protect the other pilots. We carried no bombs, only special equipment.” Despite being at a higher altitude, they still encountered mortars and night stalkers. “We flew at night only,” he explained. “What you do have is some exhaust that once in a while gives you trouble. You get near the target, you have all the flames from the town burning and you become background — they can see you coming in. We were attacked a few times but seldom.” German night fighters posed the greatest danger. “They travelled at night looking
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North Vancouver veteran Jack Henderson holds a photo of himself taken during his flight training to become a pilot during the Second World War. Henderson joined the Royal Canadian Air Force when he was 20 and saw active duty in Europe starting in 1944. PHOTO MIKE WAKEFIELD
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