Flight Officer John Harold (Hal) Wilde, Royal Canadian Air Force, Lancaster Bomber Pilot, 434th Blue Nose Squadron, 1939-1945
John Harold (Hal) Wilde
John Harold Wilde was born in Melville, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1921. During the Depression he ran the lumber yard at Englefeld, Saskatchewan. In 1939 Hitler invaded Poland and England declared war on Germany. Canada, being an English commonwealth, became involved as an ally with England.
Hal joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in Nov 1941 in Edmonton, Alberta. What he remembers about Edmonton was that it was very cold, 20 below zero. When he joined the RCAF there were no openings in flight school. The only openings they had was for radio mechanic. Hal said, “Sign me up.” He was ready to serve his country. They told him he could reapply for flight school in a year but they would put him on probation for that 12 months. He was sent to Ottawa as a radio repairman. After a year, Nov 1942, he again asked for consideration for flight school. He was sent to flight testing group and tested on a link trainer. He passed this test and sent to flight school training.
The next choice was whether he was going to be a pilot or navigator. He passed the test to become a pilot and sent to flight school. Hal learned to fly on the Tiger Moth. The Tiger Moth was a single engine biplane that served as a trainer for the RCAF. Hal recalls that there were two Americans in flight school with him, one from Wisconsin and the other from New York. Hal soloed after 8 hours of instruction, the school standard. Hal loved flying the Tiger Moth. His instructor told him," Your landings are no hell but your recovery is good.”
After flight school and awarded his “wings” Hal was sent to Prince Edward Island, navigator course.
His unit was shipped out to England by troop transport leaving the port of Halifax. The U-boats were ever present so the convoy set a course for southeast for some distance and then turned toward the northeast and the English coast. They arrived in Yarmouth, England. They waited a month for orders to a fighter squadron. There were no openings in Fighter Command during that time and an officer came to them and said that he had openings in Bomber Command. Hal said I’ll take it. He wanted to get back in the air. They went to Oxford and trained on a twin engine, Wellington Bomber. This was a two engine bomber that was used by the RCAF and the Royal Air Force.
The Vickers Wellington was a two engine long range aircraft used by the RAF and RCAF as a night bomber.
Question: What was your first mission flying the Wellington? “We carried tin foil into Germany and dropped it. The tin foil scattered with the wind and it jammed the German radar. It resembled a flight of bombers. That was the first mission.”
Wilde converted to the Lancaster bomber soon after and described the aircraft. The RCAF flew without a copilot. His bomb aimer was Tom Wittig from Manitoba. The bomb aimer would go down into the nose and lined up the bomb run and target. This was also the forward machine gun position. We had a tail machine gun and the gunner had to remove his parachute to squeeze into the seat.
http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/halifaxs.html
To see the inside of a Halifax bomber go to the above link.
Question: Where were you stationed? I was in the 434th Blue Nose Squadron and we flew out of Croft Airfield. This was north of London and near the cliffs of Dover. There was also a French squadron there.
According to RCAF records Hal was a member of Crew #163. This was the list of crewmembers:
F/O H. Wild
F/O T.L.Wittig
F/O H.J.Miller
Sgt. G.B.Murphy
F/O J.G.Ferguson
Sgt. A.R.MacDonald
Sgt. J.B.Willimason
http://www.rcaf434squadron.com/crew-downloads/434OperationalAircrew.pdf
Question: What was a typical day like on a bombing mission? “We would get briefed in the morning on the target, weather, etc. We would get trucked out to the plane and go through and inspection of everything late in the day. We took off at night, 10:00PM usually. All of our missions were at night. After takeoff we would get up to altitude, 12,000 to 14,000 feet. We never circled the airfield or formed up we went into Germany alone not in a formation like the B-17s did. At target you could see it because we had a group go in ahead of us, Pathfinders, and they would mark the target with flares. They would call out bomb the green flare or 1:00 o’clock on the red flare. The guys who marked the targets, you had to tip your hat off to them. They went in a lot lower than the bombers. We faced the Luftwaffe JU88. I never had any trouble with them but we lost some bomber and crews to them.”
“At debriefing the bombing photo overlay would be looked at and we could tell how much damage was done. I didn’t make very many missions in the Lancaster compared to other pilots of the 434th.
Question: What was one of the most memorable missions?
“That would be the 13th mission which was flown on Friday the 13th. My bombardier had been born on Friday the 13th and he was told he would die on a Friday the 13th. His name was Hank (F/O H.J. Miller). We went to the briefing and got the target information and got on a transport out to the aircraft. We checked the bomb load with the bomb bay doors open. Hank really got nervous when he counted 13 bombs hanging in the bomb bay. He was not happy. We took off, dropped our bombs on target and we landed on an
American base because we were running short on fuel. The next morning we had breakfast at the American base and real bacon.
Question: What sort of entertainment did they have your you at the base? On Saturday night there was usually a dance at this big dance hall that was maybe 150 feet in length, long enough for a band at either end. The local high school girls would line up on one side and if you wanted to dance just go up and ask one. I walked one girl home and asked to meet her parents and she said no. She had a Canadian boyfriend and he had dumped her and her parents did not like Canadians.
Hal stayed with the 434th until November of 1944. Nazi Germany surrendered in May of 1945. He volunteered to go to the Far East but Japan surrendered in August 1945. He was then ordered to fly a Lancaster back to Canada to be scraped. The flight took them by way of London to the Azores. They were delayed two weeks due to bad weather. They took off and flew to the Azores and landed with no brakes. He barely had room to stop the huge bomber before going over a cliff. Their return flight to Canada took them to Winnpeg where the Lancaster was laid to rest.
Hal told me about his Aunt Kay who lived in Halifax and was a nurse in the trenches during WW1 and managed the 2nd floor of the Halifax hospital during WW2.
I asked Hal how his faith sustained him during those dangerous years in the 434th. He said he kept praying all the time.
To read the remarkable history of the 434th Squadron go to this link. http://www.manitobamilitaryaviationmuseum.com/PDF/434squadron.pdf
After WW2 Hal attended the University of Manitoba and obtained a degree in civil engineering. He attended and graduated from the University of Michigan with an aeronautical engineering degree. He worked for Meyers Aircraft near Ann Arbor, Michigan. He married his wife, Mary, and they had three girls. Hal made him home in Texas and a 47 year employee of Union Pump Company.
Hal was a man of strong Catholic faith which sustained him throughout his life and provided him the courage to face such impossible odds.
The 434th Blue Nose Squadron suffered high casualty rates in its two years of bombing Nazi Germany. We were fortunate that God spared this fine man, husband and father.
Read MoreJohn Harold Wilde was born in Melville, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1921. During the Depression he ran the lumber yard at Englefeld, Saskatchewan. In 1939 Hitler invaded Poland and England declared war on Germany. Canada, being an English commonwealth, became involved as an ally with England.
Hal joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in Nov 1941 in Edmonton, Alberta. What he remembers about Edmonton was that it was very cold, 20 below zero. When he joined the RCAF there were no openings in flight school. The only openings they had was for radio mechanic. Hal said, “Sign me up.” He was ready to serve his country. They told him he could reapply for flight school in a year but they would put him on probation for that 12 months. He was sent to Ottawa as a radio repairman. After a year, Nov 1942, he again asked for consideration for flight school. He was sent to flight testing group and tested on a link trainer. He passed this test and sent to flight school training.
The next choice was whether he was going to be a pilot or navigator. He passed the test to become a pilot and sent to flight school. Hal learned to fly on the Tiger Moth. The Tiger Moth was a single engine biplane that served as a trainer for the RCAF. Hal recalls that there were two Americans in flight school with him, one from Wisconsin and the other from New York. Hal soloed after 8 hours of instruction, the school standard. Hal loved flying the Tiger Moth. His instructor told him," Your landings are no hell but your recovery is good.”
After flight school and awarded his “wings” Hal was sent to Prince Edward Island, navigator course.
His unit was shipped out to England by troop transport leaving the port of Halifax. The U-boats were ever present so the convoy set a course for southeast for some distance and then turned toward the northeast and the English coast. They arrived in Yarmouth, England. They waited a month for orders to a fighter squadron. There were no openings in Fighter Command during that time and an officer came to them and said that he had openings in Bomber Command. Hal said I’ll take it. He wanted to get back in the air. They went to Oxford and trained on a twin engine, Wellington Bomber. This was a two engine bomber that was used by the RCAF and the Royal Air Force.
The Vickers Wellington was a two engine long range aircraft used by the RAF and RCAF as a night bomber.
Question: What was your first mission flying the Wellington? “We carried tin foil into Germany and dropped it. The tin foil scattered with the wind and it jammed the German radar. It resembled a flight of bombers. That was the first mission.”
Wilde converted to the Lancaster bomber soon after and described the aircraft. The RCAF flew without a copilot. His bomb aimer was Tom Wittig from Manitoba. The bomb aimer would go down into the nose and lined up the bomb run and target. This was also the forward machine gun position. We had a tail machine gun and the gunner had to remove his parachute to squeeze into the seat.
http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/halifaxs.html
To see the inside of a Halifax bomber go to the above link.
Question: Where were you stationed? I was in the 434th Blue Nose Squadron and we flew out of Croft Airfield. This was north of London and near the cliffs of Dover. There was also a French squadron there.
According to RCAF records Hal was a member of Crew #163. This was the list of crewmembers:
F/O H. Wild
F/O T.L.Wittig
F/O H.J.Miller
Sgt. G.B.Murphy
F/O J.G.Ferguson
Sgt. A.R.MacDonald
Sgt. J.B.Willimason
http://www.rcaf434squadron.com/crew-downloads/434OperationalAircrew.pdf
Question: What was a typical day like on a bombing mission? “We would get briefed in the morning on the target, weather, etc. We would get trucked out to the plane and go through and inspection of everything late in the day. We took off at night, 10:00PM usually. All of our missions were at night. After takeoff we would get up to altitude, 12,000 to 14,000 feet. We never circled the airfield or formed up we went into Germany alone not in a formation like the B-17s did. At target you could see it because we had a group go in ahead of us, Pathfinders, and they would mark the target with flares. They would call out bomb the green flare or 1:00 o’clock on the red flare. The guys who marked the targets, you had to tip your hat off to them. They went in a lot lower than the bombers. We faced the Luftwaffe JU88. I never had any trouble with them but we lost some bomber and crews to them.”
“At debriefing the bombing photo overlay would be looked at and we could tell how much damage was done. I didn’t make very many missions in the Lancaster compared to other pilots of the 434th.
Question: What was one of the most memorable missions?
“That would be the 13th mission which was flown on Friday the 13th. My bombardier had been born on Friday the 13th and he was told he would die on a Friday the 13th. His name was Hank (F/O H.J. Miller). We went to the briefing and got the target information and got on a transport out to the aircraft. We checked the bomb load with the bomb bay doors open. Hank really got nervous when he counted 13 bombs hanging in the bomb bay. He was not happy. We took off, dropped our bombs on target and we landed on an
American base because we were running short on fuel. The next morning we had breakfast at the American base and real bacon.
Question: What sort of entertainment did they have your you at the base? On Saturday night there was usually a dance at this big dance hall that was maybe 150 feet in length, long enough for a band at either end. The local high school girls would line up on one side and if you wanted to dance just go up and ask one. I walked one girl home and asked to meet her parents and she said no. She had a Canadian boyfriend and he had dumped her and her parents did not like Canadians.
Hal stayed with the 434th until November of 1944. Nazi Germany surrendered in May of 1945. He volunteered to go to the Far East but Japan surrendered in August 1945. He was then ordered to fly a Lancaster back to Canada to be scraped. The flight took them by way of London to the Azores. They were delayed two weeks due to bad weather. They took off and flew to the Azores and landed with no brakes. He barely had room to stop the huge bomber before going over a cliff. Their return flight to Canada took them to Winnpeg where the Lancaster was laid to rest.
Hal told me about his Aunt Kay who lived in Halifax and was a nurse in the trenches during WW1 and managed the 2nd floor of the Halifax hospital during WW2.
I asked Hal how his faith sustained him during those dangerous years in the 434th. He said he kept praying all the time.
To read the remarkable history of the 434th Squadron go to this link. http://www.manitobamilitaryaviationmuseum.com/PDF/434squadron.pdf
After WW2 Hal attended the University of Manitoba and obtained a degree in civil engineering. He attended and graduated from the University of Michigan with an aeronautical engineering degree. He worked for Meyers Aircraft near Ann Arbor, Michigan. He married his wife, Mary, and they had three girls. Hal made him home in Texas and a 47 year employee of Union Pump Company.
Hal was a man of strong Catholic faith which sustained him throughout his life and provided him the courage to face such impossible odds.
The 434th Blue Nose Squadron suffered high casualty rates in its two years of bombing Nazi Germany. We were fortunate that God spared this fine man, husband and father.
