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SASKATOONEXPRESS - November 7-13, 2016 - Page 1
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Volume 14, Issue 43, Week of November 7, 2016
Saskatoonʼs REAL Community Newspaper
Frank Gow rose to the challenge Frank Gow saw action in England and India during the Second World War. (Photo by Sandy Hutchinson)
O
Now 94, veteran looks back at the Second World War
n a June night in 1943, actually wondering why we Frank Gow, a Prairie needed the tin hats,” said Gow, boy trained as a radar now 94 years old and living in technician, got a glimpse of Saskatoon. how effective his work in the “By one o’clock, we knew Second World War could be. why we were wearing tin hats. Three nights after reporting One of our British aircraft shot to the No. 85 Squadron, which down an enemy FW190 just specialized in installing and above us. It was quite a display maintaining radar equipment in and explosion and although it aircraft near London, England, was pitch black at night, the Gow and others were told to sky looked like it was a specreport for guard duty. The astacular noon day. The bomber People signment came with a specific exploded and down came hot order: Wear your tin hats. metal, plane parts and body “It was a peaceful evening, the flowers parts. That night, we could see how valuaround us were beautiful and we were able our work was in air defence.”
NED POWERS
Radar systems used radio waves to determine the range, angle and velocity of objects, a method developed just prior to the Second World War and enhanced greatly during the war. Basically, a British aircraft would have radar installed immediately in front of where the pilot sat. The scope showed the pilot how close he was to an enemy bomber which he could chase. It even allowed him to aim his guns at a plane above him. Once the pursuing fighter plane was within 500 yards of the enemy, the cannons went off automatically, usually followed by the fireworks. Attached to airborne radar, Gow and fellow Canadians made a significant
contribution to Britain’s success and later India’s defence in widely separated conflicts. History books show that Winston Churchill, then prime minister of Great Britain, told Mackenzie King, prime minister of Canada, that Britain had the aircraft and ground stations, but urgently needed radar installers and technicians. Canada responded. The primary Battle of Britain, which occurred in 1941, had been won by the defending nation against the German enemy but Gow said “even after I went to Britain, the Germans were still coming at us.” (Continued on page 7)