Joining the RCAF as Aircrew in 1940 meant chances of surviving World War Two were slim. Luftwaffe pilots and their equipment were far superior to the Allies. They had been training pilots for years and many had flown in the Spanish Civil War. They were very good.
This is a newspaper clipping from the Moose Jaw Times Herald dated October 16, 1941 – eighty years ago.
Pilot Officer Donald Smith McDonald, Navigator (Observer), Service Number: J/5093, was born in Selkirk, Manitoba in 1910. He was the son of Donald and Donaldina McDonald and was the husband of Elizabeth McDonald. In 1941 his wife was living at 847 University Drive, Saskatoon.
Like so many of his generation, he graduated high school in the Great Depression and took what work he could find. Often called the ‘Ten Lost Years’, the Great Depression meant men and women coming of age in the thirties had to put ‘youthful excitement’ on hold and enjoy what they could. When war came in September 1939 many men and women joined the services for a great adventure. Pilot Officer Donald Smith McDonald would have been no different.
Most of the men joining the RCAF as Aircrew were young. At age 30, when he joined the RCAF in July 1940, Donald McDonald was really too old to be joining. However, there was a desperate need for aircrew at the beginning of the war and an even more desperate need for men with the mathematics skills, like Don, who could master the intricacies of Air Navigation. Upon graduation Don was given the ‘Air Observer’ badge, proudly worn on the left side of his tunic.
Don was posted to England in the Spring of 1941 and later assigned to #58 Squadron, RAF. On the night of October 11, 1941 he was the Navigator of the crew of a twin engine Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V Bomber s/n Z9154, stationed at Linton-on-Ouse, England. 58 Squadron was then part of Bomber Command having moved from Coastal Command and was now bombing targets in Europe.
At 0035 on October 11, 1941 the crew took off from their base at Linton-on-Ouse for a bombing raid on Essen, Germany. The flight would take them across the Dutch coast to their target. It should have been a short trip of less than eight hours return. They never returned.
Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Bomber number Z9154 was shot down off the coast of Callantsoog, Holland by a Luftwaffe Night Fighter.
The five-man crew included 3 RAF men and 2 RCAF men.
Royal Air Force, 58 Squadron men killed 11 October 1941 aboard Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Bomber number Z9154 were:
Sergeant Arthur William Cooper, Pilot, Service Number: 1254701, RAFVR, Age 24. He was the son of Arthur William and Daisy M. Cooper, of Enfield, Middlesex and is buried at Bergen-Op-Zoom War Cemetery, Netherlands, Grave Reference 31. C. 1.
Sergeant Thomas Alexander Walter Hamilton, RAFVR, Wireless Air Gunner, Service Number: 1051939, Buried Bergen-Op-Zoom War Cemetery, Netherlands; Grave Reference 32. C. 12. No age or family identified.
Flight Sergeant Alfred Ronald Robbins, RAFVR, Pilot, Service Number: 754051, Age 21; Son of Alfred John and Una Robbins, of Salford Priors, Worcestershire; Buried at Bergen-Op-Zoom War Cemetery, Netherlands, Grave Reference 29. A. 9.
Royal Canadian Air Force, 58 Squadron men aboard Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Bomber number Z9154 on the night of October 11, 1941 were:
Pilot Officer Donald Smith McDonald, J/5093, Navigator (Observer), Killed in Action October 11, 1941. Age 31, he was the husband of Elizabeth McDonald, living at 847 University Drive, Saskatoon Saskatchewan. P/O McDonald’s body was never recovered. He is remembered at the RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL Surrey, United Kingdom, Reference: Panel 60.
Flight Sergeant William Harold Sproule, R/74142, RCAF Air Gunner from Brampton, Ontario survived.
Flt/Sgt Sproule parachuted from the aircraft, was captured and became a prisoner of war. He was assigned the POW #24395 and sent to Stalag Luft L6 at Heydekrug where he stayed until the end of the War.
