Daily Diary

No. 33 Service Flying Training School,
Carberry, Manitoba

March 1941

This Transcription of the Operational Record Book of No. 33 Service Flying Training School that was Located at Carberry, Manitoba, Canada was created by the volunteers at the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, Brandon, Manitoba. You can visit their website by clicking this heading.

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CARBERRY.
1 March 1941

• 1.3.41.STRENGTH: Officers (R.A.F.) 82, (R.C.A.F.) 4. (Army) 2.
  Senior N.C.Os 54. Other ranks (Staff) 920. (Pupil Pilots) 113.
  The Unit entered upon its third full month with vigour. The appointment of two permanent Orderly Officers was but one of a large number of measures taken to increase efficiency and remove obstacles to swifter progress. Each department and Section was spring-cleaned, committees were established, and improved weather conditions enabled the wedded energy of Maintenance and Instruction Wings to be consummated in the vital matter of flying.

2 March 1941

• Whereas, on the 25th. of February, the Flying Hours had been 530 for the first Course and 426 for the second Course, on this day the first Course had achieved 1,046 hours and the second Course had 735 to its credit. There were more aeroplanes for training – a total now of twenty-eight Ansons, and (if three of them had possessed their elusive airscrews) eighteen Harvards. A few days later two Moths were added for the benefit of the Instructors.
  On the evening of this day the Station welcomed the first Concert Party to visit it from Portage La Prairie. This happy group was numerous and, with the exception of the Mayor and Padre, exclusively feminine; and it confirmed the general opinion already held …

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CARBERRY.
2 March 1941
(continued)

• … about the attractiveness of that town. The performance was salted with three masculine items provided by airmen of this Unit.

3 March 1941

• For the first time there appeared in Daily Routine Orders a notice concerning the ‘Aerodrome Control Officer’. The Link Trainers came under the control of another Officer. And changes were made in the Officers’ Mess organisation. On the same day there visited the Station, in connection with the Airmen’s messing, Captain Laing, a representative of Major Kynch, D.S., and T.O., Tuxedo Barracks, Winnipeg. The airmen had not been impressed by some of the rations common to Canada but unfamiliar to the United Kingdom. Nor could the kitchen appointments and staff be considered to be beyond reproach. After the dietetic difficulties of the day, the night was not without disturbance. During the Night Flying (now in full swing) two Harvards were put out of action (Category ‘C’). One pupil pilot undershot the landing ground and damaged his aeroplane: another had the misfortune to damage his airscrew when his engine cut out as he was taking off.

4 March 1941

• A new arrangement was now made which affected the recreation of all ranks. The Y.M.C.A. had by this time provided, with its small projector, no less than forty free cinematograph performances; and the Unit was indebted to it for many diverting hours. But more up-to-date pictures with better sound and projection had been desired. Accordingly a professional installation was given its chance, and an entrance fee imposed. A general referendum was organised and the very large number of voting papers returned were unanimously

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CARBERRY.
4 March 1941
(continued)

• … in favour of the change. The increased business of the Station called for more pleasant relaxation, and the resulting addition to the funds of the P.S.I, was not a negligible matter.

5 March 1941

• As an indication that as just a balance as possible was being maintained in the attention now being given to the welfare of the Unit, a meeting of Corporals – whose duties are usually more numerous than their privileges – was officially sanctioned; and the Commanding Officer gave them his permission to establish themselves socially, and exclusively, in the small Canteen of an evening.

6 March 1941

• On this day a Pupil Pilot taxied his Harvard into the rear of an Anson. Little damage resulted – in fact, the one damaged aircraft (the Anson) was serviceable next day. What was of major importance on this date was that the previous careful measures for combating the grave menace of fire were submitted to the closest scrutiny by a new committee. And side by side with so essential a matter there came, studiously, the institution of Shorthand Classes; and, blithely, the beginning of a Table Tennis Tournament.

7 March 1941

• The problem of messing had already received specialised attention. A new departure …

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CARBERRY.
7 March 1941
(continued)

• … was now made in the appointment of civilian cooks to the Airmen’s Mess, chiefly in the hope that what was already palatable to Canadians should become increasingly palatable to the R.A.F. in Canada if served in a knowing way – it being understood that stores issues in the Dominion must by nature not be facsimile to those at Home.

8 March 1941

• The many progressive changes in the organisation of the Station – usually departmentalised, and therefore not generally known in detail – were suggested by the publication of new Routine Orders. At this period of the month, also, came renewed evidence in D.R.Os that any member of the Unit might submit his ideas about a Crest: and that, in addition to the Correspondence Courses embarked upon by over one hundred and thirty airmen, there would also be opportunities for those whose education exceeded the common standard attained by an average boy leaving school.

9 March 1941

• The place-name ‘Petrel’ was becoming increasingly used in conversation. Petrel, roughly ten miles north of the Camp held the Station’s Emergency Landing Ground. It had been used previously by an E.F.T.S. of the R.C.A.F., and consisted of a bungalow structure as quarters and some garages, with a farm nearby. With the introduction of Night Flying its importance grew, and trained crash-crews were sent there daily in two shifts – one for the day, and one for the night.

10 March 1941

• The appearance of a predated authority for five civilians to occupy quarters and draw rations served as a reminder that the Canteens were now largely conducted by Y.M.C.A. personnel.

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CARBERRY.
11 March 1941

• Flying Instruction, Fire Fighting, Messing – even the appointment of a second Nursing – Sister (Miss. M.A. Kains) – failed on this day to arouse quite the interest that was attracted to the Station’s half-hour Broadcast under the aegis of the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. Subsequent letters of congratulation received from towns remote as Vancouver would seem to indicate that the Concert not only pleased listeners by its variety of talent but also – through the address of the Commanding Officer, and the birthday interview of Wing Commander T.C. Dickens – bound yet more strongly the ties between Dominion and Mother Country.

12 March 1941

• In pursuance of discipline and Fire Precautions a rule against smoking in the roads and paths of the Camp was imposed. At the same time a great boon was announced in that a ‘bus service had been arranged between the Camp and Brandon. The service consisted of a single motor coach leaving the Camp at a suitable time and returning from Brandon at an hour convenient to the airmen’s wishes. After five days and nights of uneventful flying, a mishap occurred due to a Pupil Pilot’s forgetfulness to lower his flaps before landing.
  He overshot the landing field and damaged the fuselage (Category ‘C’).

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CARBERRY.
13 March 1941

• A specially noteworthy day both in Training and Sport: The first examination of Pupil Pilots was held, the Recreation Hall being prepared to take the entire first Course. As an offset, and in the evening, the Station Boxing Team made its first public appearance – in Brandon – in contests mainly against the boxers from No. 2 Manning Depot and Rivers. It acquitted itself well, and behaved very much as a member of the executive Committee of the Royal Air Force Boxing Board of Control (the Commander Officer) had hoped.
  In addition to these two matters, there was activity in the Unit in connection with the sale of War Savings Certificates.

14 March 1941

• The fine hospitality of the people of Manitoba, reference to which had been one of the three major points in the Commanding Officer’s broad-cast address, was continuing unabated. Scarcely a day passed without its mail of letters of invitation. Occasionally these letters also enquired for airmen either related to the writers or hailing from the same town or county in the United Kingdom. Some invitations were on a larger scale. On the 14th. of March, for instance, arrangements were in hand for responding to invitations to a Scottish social event, in Brandon, to a St. Patricks Dance in Winnipeg, to a St. George’s Day function in Brandon, and to a Girl’s Club private dance in Winnipeg. At the same time it was known that similar ideas were formulating in Neepawa and Portage. It is unnecessary to mention Carberry in this connection, for its efforts were continuous. A slightly unusual source of invitation was the Northern Light Lodge of Winnipeg which extended hospitality on the third …

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CARBERRY.
14 March 1941
(continued)

• … Thursday of each month to all members of the Craft.

15 March 1941

• This might easily have been a disastrous day in the early life of the Station. A comparatively light fall of snow suddenly became a heavy fall, and even more suddenly turned into an out-and-out blizzard. Four aircraft were flying, and returned only just in time. No meteorological signals had given warning of these dangerous conditions, and the Station could congratulate itself partly on its luck and partly of the good judgement of the pilots concerned. Various precautions were immediately taken to ensure the safety of airmen who were wishing to return to Camp from Carberry.

16 March 1941

• A Selection Committee was instituted for the Commissioning of B.C.A.T.P. Graduates. Its membership consisted of the Station Commander, the Chief Instructor, the Chief Ground Instructor, the Officers Commanding ‘A’ Squadron and ‘B’ Squadron, and one Flight Lieutenant of the Ground Instruction Staff. Also, on this day, the new Chaplain – Squadron Leader E.W.L. May – conducted his first Services. The Station was loath to say farewell to Squadron Leader Norris, its visiting Chaplain from Brandon: but it was certainly …

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CARBERRY.
16 March 1941
(continued)

• … a pleasing prospect to have a full-time Padre.

17 March 1941

• The notice calling for any airman with experience in Landscape Gardening to come forward introduced a pleasant atmosphere of optimism. This was lowered a little when the Commanding Officer found it necessary to address the airmen on the much discussed subject of ‘wives in Canada’. Little hope could be held out. Finally the day became thoroughly undesirable. One pupil pilot, coming to a mistaken conclusion that he had run out of petrol, made a forced landing in his Anson at St. Cloud. Another lost his bearings and made a forced landing at Plumas – again an Anson. A third, in a Harvard, undershot the landing field by night and made a crashed-landing (Category ‘C’). Happily however, there were no personal injuries; and the forced landing at Plumas deserves fuller comment as illustrating the ways in which, difficulties can be surmounted. Certain Officers and Airmen were despatched to investigate the apparent impossibility of flying the Anson back to the Station, unimpressed by the normal passenger-train service of one per day. Pilot Officer R.H. Harbourne, D.F.C., reached Plumas by an unfamiliar railway gas-car that developed five miles an hour. He arrived to find that the community – largely of German extraction – had turned out in great strength and a variety of sleighs to watch his efforts and to see an aircraft close to. Fitters changed the propellers, and the problem of making a runway in the deep snow was attacked, with the local population acting as a Committee of Ways and Means. Interesting agricultural implements were brought into play, including a tractor and land-maintainer, …

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CARBERRY.

17 March 1941
(continued)

• … coaxed over two miles of thoroughly bad going, which survived to break out snow and ice into a resemblance to a runway. A section of railway line was then borrowed, and two teams of horses harnessed to each end so that its broad-side movement should apply the rough idea of levelling. These exercises of voluntary workers of German origin (abetted by two young evacuees from Newmarket, Cambridgeshire) lasted for one-and-a-half days: but there was enough light left for attempting a little experimental taxying, with the inhabitants engaged on hauling the Anson back on each occasion. On the next morning, luckily hard and frosty, an unsuccessful trial run was made, which, without casualty, shook the population, who seemed to regard the affair as a golfer’s drive in match play. On the second attempt – although the wind had veered since the runway had been constructed – the Anson was up and off.

18 March 1941

• An official visit was made by Wing Commander H.G. Reid and Flight Lieutenant Lovelace to observe the organisation of the Security Guard. The Flight Lieutenant had been in charge of the Station Security before his posting to Command Headquarters. On the evening of this day, two of the airmen who had performed in the Station broadcast were included in a C.B.C. Concert at the Walker Theatre, Winnipeg. A.C. Death received an ovation for his …

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CARBERRY.
18 March 1941
(continued)

• … playing of the pianoforte and L.A.C. Richardson carried off second prize for his rendering of his song “The Old Sow”.

19 March 1941

• From a social point of view this was a red letter day in the airmen’s diaries as, in the evening, the first airmen’s dance was held on the Station. Volunteers had transformed the Recreation Hall, the Station Dance Band was at its best, and four hundred and fifty people were present – including two hundred girls from Carberry and neighbouring Hamlets. A very successful and refreshing event.

20 March 1941

• The issue of new and highly detailed Fire Orders directed attention yet again to the great urgency attached to Fire Precautions. At this time the airmen’s messing was receiving expert attention from a visiting Flying Officer Bastian who had many suggestions to make.

21 March 1941

• Flying by night as well as by day was now very active. While the Camp’s roads and paths became increasingly muddy, the landing field was maintained in good order, and there was no excuse whatever (except forgetfulness) for a pupil pilot who landed with his undercarriage retracted, (Harvard Category ‘C’).

22 March 1941

• At the same time as a very great number of adjustments were being made to improve the comfort and efficiency of the Camp, the necessity of care and economy was by no means forgotten. For instance, an order was published warning all ranks against wastage of electricity. There was certainly little wastage of time!
• On this day a pupil pilot made a forced landing on his Anson three and a half miles south of MacGregor – with little damage…

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CARBERRY.
22 March 1941
(continued)

• … Flying Officer Anderson immediately went to the place with a guard. His report that there was “a distinct possibility” of the aircraft being serviced and flown off brought out Flying Officer Caswell with the Snogo, a Trailer and Crane, and an appropriately loaded three ton truck. A front-wheel of the crane-bearing Trailer broke off, bursting the tyre-valve – but by balancing the crane this way and that a back tyre was put on the front wheel. From MacGregor the way to the aircraft was possible only to horses and sleighs. The Snogo attended to this with such energy that its discharge shattered the windows of a farm. And, as a result of a good deal of enterprise, the aircraft landed at Carberry only thirty-one working hours from the first report of the forced landing.

23 March 1941

• The National Day of Prayer in Canada was observed by the Station. Flying Instruction continued, of course: but every available member of the Unit paraded in the Drill Hall during the morning for a very impressive Service conducted by the Chaplain. This compulsory Church Parade had all the atmosphere of a voluntary one, and was followed by a well-attended celebration of Holy Communion.

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CARBERRY.
24 March 1941

• A somewhat large number of airmen were made cheerful by a notice of reclassifications to A.C.I and to L.A.C.

25 March 1941

• In response to a suggestion coming from the airmen themselves, and officially expressed by the Sports Committee, it was decided to invite them to pay a Sports subscription of ten cents monthly. The Station, after enjoying a good season of skating and ice-hockey, many games of basket ball, a little volley ball and curling, and even a few games of broom-ball, was turning its mind towards older favourites such as football, cricket, tennis and swimming. And, with its ring now nearly completed. Boxing claimed more and more interest.

26 March 1941

• Side by side with urgent measures peculiar to war-time came daily orders more associated with the unhurried life of a Unit during days of peace. The holding of confirmation classes, the reminder given to those who might enjoy a Manitoba franchise for the Provincial Elections, the warnings about a variety of vices, the notification of forthcoming Concerts, the constructions of a stage suited to dramatic performances and worthy of visiting performers, considerations about Educational Courses – all such notices prompted the feeling that all ranks were settling down not only to a strong, but a long, pull.
• 27.3.41. Drivers of the M.T. Section began to look forward to improved conditions, but road-surfaces at this period grew even more treacherous, and there were occasional mishaps which the numerical strength of the Transport could ill afford.

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CARBERRY.

• 28.3.41. Problems were still being presented by the shortage of aircraft. The Unit possessed only fifty per cent of the aeroplanes which would normally make up the establishment for a Flying Training School of its size. But, despite this, an interesting record was made on this day. A Training School with a full supply of aeroplanes is expected to average roughly 250 flying hours per diem. This Unit, with half that number, recorded 236.
• 29.3.41. Squadron Leader J. Rossie Brown, Chaplain (Church of Scotland) had come to spend a few days in making contacts with Scottish personnel. He gave the address at the Church Parade, and subsequently held a Communion Service. Roman Catholics continued to be transported into Brandon on Sunday mornings at 06.15 hours. Two Courts of Inquiry were announced in connection with accidents to transport vehicles. One accident occurred on the 18th. March – the other on the 28th. March.
• 31.3.41. This extremely busy month closed with a mark of interrogation. Would flying be disorganised by the thawing snow of the landing field? And how long would it be before conditions enabled the promising Courses to enjoy a one hundred per cent opportunity of going flat out? The number of aeroplanes in commission at this point was: Ansons 16,

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CARBERRY

• 31.3.41. (cont’d)
  Harvards 13, Moths 1,. And the number temporarily hors de combat was: Ansons 19, Harvards 5, Moths 1.
  STRENGTH: Officers (R.A.F.) 82. (R.C.A.F.) 2 (Army) 2.
  Senior N.C.Os 56.
  Other ranks (Staff) 918. (Pupil Pilots) 110.
  H.E. Walker
  Group Captain, Commanding,
  No. 33 S.F.T.S. R.A.F.