WW2 Aircraft Parts
These parts came with a WW2 story about a low level
flight from New Brunswick to Summerside by 2 Avro Anson advanced training aircraft, one
of which had crashed in Bedeque after becoming lost in bad weather. As is so
often the case with oral stories, bits were true but not necessarily related to
the parts! The detective work forms a large part of this week’s story.
During WW2, over 131,000 Allied aircrew were trained in Canada. There were 4 bases on Prince Edward Island, mainly operating the Avro Anson twin engined light bomber re-roled for training. These were painted yellow, as are our parts. Anson aircraft would have been a familiar sight over Bedeque during the war. The construction of the parts is unusual – they are made from wood and thin plywood, instead of metal which was more common at that time. The main ‘wooden wonder’ aircraft of WW2 was the De Havilland Mosquito, designed in England to deal with the shortage of metal and a large group of furniture makers with no war role. Over 1,000 were licence-built in Ontario, Canada. The Avro Anson had a plywood wing and metal fuselage; however Canadian designers came up with a fuselage made of plywood also, and Canadian MkV Ansons were all-wood. The parts must therefore be from one of these two types.
A look through all the Anson accidents (over 500), with help from the Alberta Aviation museum, revealed only 4 on PEI. None of these were likely candidates, but there was a Mosquito accident in Bedeque Bay, just off Sea Cow Head, involving an aircraft flying transatlantic to England crashing in bad weather. Did we have parts of a yellow Mosquito? We were able to find the man who literally wrote the book on transatlantic deliveries, and a Scottish Observer who actually flew those ferry aircraft – both confirmed there were no yellow Mosquitoes.
The Alberta Aviation Museum and the National Air Force Museum of Canada were then able to confirm that the parts are from the nose of an Avro Anson MkV. After further research we managed to establish they came from an Anson which had been bought as scrap after the war, and had graced Howard Clark’s front lawn for some years. Furthermore, we found an old photograph of an aircraft that did crash in Bedeque itself – and identified it as a biplane trainer sold as war-surplus. Thus the original story turned out to be 3 stories nailed together!
Next week, a bit more on the Mosquito crash in Bedeque Bay, and the biplane.
During WW2, over 131,000 Allied aircrew were trained in Canada. There were 4 bases on Prince Edward Island, mainly operating the Avro Anson twin engined light bomber re-roled for training. These were painted yellow, as are our parts. Anson aircraft would have been a familiar sight over Bedeque during the war. The construction of the parts is unusual – they are made from wood and thin plywood, instead of metal which was more common at that time. The main ‘wooden wonder’ aircraft of WW2 was the De Havilland Mosquito, designed in England to deal with the shortage of metal and a large group of furniture makers with no war role. Over 1,000 were licence-built in Ontario, Canada. The Avro Anson had a plywood wing and metal fuselage; however Canadian designers came up with a fuselage made of plywood also, and Canadian MkV Ansons were all-wood. The parts must therefore be from one of these two types.
A look through all the Anson accidents (over 500), with help from the Alberta Aviation museum, revealed only 4 on PEI. None of these were likely candidates, but there was a Mosquito accident in Bedeque Bay, just off Sea Cow Head, involving an aircraft flying transatlantic to England crashing in bad weather. Did we have parts of a yellow Mosquito? We were able to find the man who literally wrote the book on transatlantic deliveries, and a Scottish Observer who actually flew those ferry aircraft – both confirmed there were no yellow Mosquitoes.
The Alberta Aviation Museum and the National Air Force Museum of Canada were then able to confirm that the parts are from the nose of an Avro Anson MkV. After further research we managed to establish they came from an Anson which had been bought as scrap after the war, and had graced Howard Clark’s front lawn for some years. Furthermore, we found an old photograph of an aircraft that did crash in Bedeque itself – and identified it as a biplane trainer sold as war-surplus. Thus the original story turned out to be 3 stories nailed together!
Next week, a bit more on the Mosquito crash in Bedeque Bay, and the biplane.
