By David Clark

OOn January 24, 1952 Lan-caster FM213 was on ap-proach to the RoyalCanadian Air Force (RCAF) baseat Trenton, Ontario at the end ofone of the legs of her journey tojoin 405 MR (Maritime Recon-naissance) Squadron in Green-wood, Nova Scotia.

The Cold War was in its in-fancy and Canada had begun torearm after the massive demobi-lization that had occurred at theend of the Second World War.FM213 had just recently com-pleted a conversion from a MarkX heavy bomber to a Mark 10MRmaritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.

Unfortunately as she reachedthe landing field the aircraftstalled, ground looped and col-lapsed her starboard landing gearas she impacted the runway. Ini-tially it seemed that she was atotal write-off, her centre sectionbadly damaged.

With no known source of re-placement for such a large partknown to exist in Canada at thistime, as all the other Lancastershad been scrapped or convertedfor other duties, it seemed thatFM213 would be doomed tonever see active service.

Thankfully, one of the menwho had helped to find and reac-quire many of the Lancasters thathad been sold off after WorldWar Two during the post-war de-mobilization remembered onepossible source for this vital re-placement part.

It would be this event thatwould cause the histories of twoLancasters – one a Second WorldWar veteran that had lain derelictin a farmers field for a number ofyears and the other an aircraft thathad been built for war but seemedfated to never serve her country –to intersect and allow FM213 tonot only go on to render manyyears of service to her country butalso to survive to become an en-during monument to the serviceof thousands upon thousands ofmen and aircraft that servedCanada during and after the great-est conflict in human history.

Lady Orchid goes to warLancaster Mk. X KB895 left

the Victory Aircraft Factory inMalton Ont., January 1945. Vic-tory Aircraft Limited was aCanadian Crown corporationcreated from the Malton branchof the National Steel Car Corpo-ration in November of 1942 as a‘shadow factory’, safe from Ger-man bombing.

This facility would go on tobuild thousands of aircraft duringthe war, including 430 Mk. XLancasters (Mk. X being the des-ignation for Mk. I Lancastersbuilt in Canada).

KB895 arrived in England inMarch of 1945 and was initiallyissued to No. 428 (Ghost)Squadron but was soon reissuedto No. 434 (Bluenose) Squadron.Now all the aircraft needed was acrew and a pilot.

Ronald Henry Jenkins wasborn in Calgary, Alberta, Canadaon July 8, 1913. He grew uparound his family’s grocery busi-ness, and after graduating fromMount Royal College in 1934went to work in the family busi-ness, Jenkins Groceteria, whichby this point was growing into avery successful chain of storesthat would eventually includeseven stores, a bakery, and awholesale branch.

In 1943 he left the company tojoin the Royal Canadian Air

Force. Though Ron was 29 yearsof age (about 10 years older thanthe average recruit) he had hisheart set on joining the Air Forceand fighting the war as a pilot.

In the spring of 1943 he wasassigned to No. 4 ITS (InitialTraining School) of the BritishCommonwealth Air TrainingPlan (BCATP) in Edmonton andbegan his training to become apilot.

After passing through a num-ber of training schools he wasauthorized to wear the Pilot’sFlying Badge as F/O (Flying Of-ficer) Jenkins, graduating fromNo. 3 Service Flying TrainingSchool on Oct. 15, 1943. Hewould then complete a numberof other courses before he wasposted to No. 434 Squadron inCroft, Yorkshire, England onDec. 21, 1944.

He flew his first operation assecond pilot over Paris on Jan. 28,1945 and was then assigned to anaircraft and a permanent crew.

F/O Jenkins and his new crew,consisting of F/O Savage, F/OHines, W/O (Warrant Officer)McLean, F/Sgt (Flight Sergeant)Baird, Sgt Foss and F/SgtMoodie, would begin flying op-erations in early February andwould go on to fly 11 missions(February 3, 7, 19, 26, 27 andMarch 2, 7, 8, 10, 14, 20) in aBritish-built Lancaster Mk. I, PA

225, which carried the squadroncode WL-O (Oboe).

That aircraft was then reas-signed to No.429 (Bison)Squadron on March 28 as No.434 Squadron began taking deliv-ery of new Canadian-built Lan-caster Mk. Xs. On April 2, 1945Jenkins and his crew took chargeof KB895.

After they completed pre-operational testing, No. 434Squadron’s commanding officer,Wing Commander J.C. Mulvil-hill, assigned them the new Lan-caster as their personal aircraft.

Now that the crew had theirown Lancaster they decided topersonalize the aircraft. Thoughnowhere near as wide-spread as itwas in American air services,painting nose art on aircraft, par-ticularly bombers, was becomingvery popular in the British andCommonwealth Air Forces bythis point in the war.

As was the case with their firstaircraft, KB895’s squadron codeletters were WL-O, so they namedthe Lancaster “Wee Lady Or-chid”. The entire crew partici-pated in painting the nose art onthe aircraft and it was decided touse the image of Lady Godiva rid-ing a bomb and carrying two six-shooter pistols, the later part inhonour of the western heritage ofJenkins’ home town of Calgary.

Jenkins painted the red L andO on the aircraft and the rest ofthe crew completed the remain-der of the name and the artwork.During the painting it was de-cided to drop the prefix Wee fromthe name and the aircraft becameknown simply as Lady Orchid.

KB895 and her crew beganoperations on April 8, 1945.Jenkins and his crew would fly atotal of five missions in her bywar’s end: Hamburg on April 8,Leipzig on April 10, Kiel on April13 (in which Jenkins performedtwo successive corkscrew ma-noeuvres to evade German night-fighters), and Schwandorf onApril 16. The final mission toBremen on April 22, 1945 wasaborted due to poor weather overthe target.

Lady Orchid therefore endedup displaying 15 white bombmission markers for the totalnumber of completed missionsthat Jenkins and his crew hadflown in combat and one red onefor the aborted mission.

KB895 would also fly a num-ber of other operations during itstime with No. 434 Squadron withother crews before the war ended,with the final taking place onApril 25, 1945 in a raid on navaldefences at Wangerooge underthe command of F/O Bonar.

Though the war in Europe wasover, the war in the Pacific stillraged and Lady Orchid and hercrew continued to train in prepa-ration for deployment againstJapan. From May 7 to June 7,1945 the crew trained intensely.

On May 10 they flew overcontinental Europe one more timeas part of Operation Exodus, withLady Orchid flying from Croft toJuvincourt France for the purposeof ferrying Allied POWs back toWestcott in England before re-turning to Croft. It was also dur-ing this time that KB895 gainedsome more decorative touches.

Lady Orchid herself acquiredtwo red maple leaves on her uppertorso, the aircraft’s prop spinnerswere painted roundel blue, thephrase “Jenkins’ Express” waspainted on the right side of thefuselage under the cockpit and tailgunner Bruce Baird painted thewords “Bruce ‘Buster’ Slim” onthe face of his turret.

It was now time to returnhome. Lady Orchid and many lowflight time Canadian-built Lan-casters that had been deployed toEurope were flown back toCanada to join the RCAF’s con-tribution to Tiger Force (alsoknown as the Very Long RangeBomber Force), a large heavybomber force that Britain plannedto deploy against Japan after hos-tilities ended with Germany.

Mailed byCanadian WarplaneHeritage Museum,9280 Airport Road,Mount Hope, Ontario,

L0R 1W0A PUBLICATION OF CANADIAN WARPLANE HERITAGE MUSEUMMAY 2016

• continued on next page

A tale of two Lancasters Lady Orchid just after the maple leafs had been added to her torso, some-time before June 7, 1945 while she was still based at the RCAF base inCroft, Yorkshire. Photo courtesy of the Clarence Simonsen collection

RCAF Lancasters in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia after returning for Europe in1945, Lady Orchid is second from the right.

Photo courtesy of the Clarence Simonsen collection

FM213 after her crash landing at Trenton in 1952. Photo courtesy of the Ron Cruse and the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum

Ron Jenkins in October 1943, afterreceiving his Pilot’s Flying Badge.

Photo courtesy of the ClarenceSimonsen collection

Lady Orchid nose art.

How a derelict CanadianLancaster would renderone last service to hercountry and allow an-other Lanc to continueto fly to this day!

2 CWH FLIGHTLINES MAY 2016

Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum

Printed as a supplementto COPA Flight for the CanadianOwners and PilotsAssociation and theCanadian WarplaneHeritage Museum.

Published by

Flightlines

News BriefsThe Canadian Warplane Her-

itage Museum is proud to presentthe “Anne Frank - A History ForToday” exhibit from the AnneFrank House in Amsterdam.

Featuring the story of AnneFrank and artifacts never beforedisplayed in Canada. The ex-hibit will also focus onCanada’s role in the Liberation

of Holland and the prejudicesand discrimination that someCanadians faced, includingthose in the RCAF.

The story of Anne Frank andher life of hiding in the SecretAnnex during the Second WorldWar is a story of perseveranceand bravery. Living for almosttwo years in hiding during theNazi occupation of Holland, sherecorded her daily thoughts in ajournal. Today, her journal is atestament to the prejudice thatwas faced by so many during theHolocaust.

The “Anne Frank – A HistoryFor Today” exhibit is open dailyfrom 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Au-gust 28, 2016. Regular admis-sion rates apply.

Anne Frank - A History For Today

Tiger Force was originallyproposed during the QuebecConference in September of 1944and was to consist of 22squadrons from the RAF, RCAF,RAAF (Royal Australian AirForce) and RNZAF (Royal NewZealand Air Force).

The aircraft in the force wouldconsist of Lancasters (whichwould be replaced by Avro Lin-colns once enough of them be-came available) and ConsolidatedLiberators and by mid-1945 itwas planned that the units wouldbe based on Okinawa.

Canada was originally slatedto deploy four bomber wings(Nos. 661, 662, 663, and 664)with each wing consisting of twosquadrons and including in total141 Canadian-built Mk. X Lan-casters.

The planned size of TigerForce soon shrank to 10squadrons as the war in Europeneared its end and the logisticalrealities of deploying such alarge force provoked an adjust-ment in thinking. KB895 leftCroft on June 7, 1945 and flew aseries of legs across the Atlanticwith Jenkins and a ferry crew.The trip took a total of 10 daysand included a delay of five daysin Cornwall due to bad weatherand two close shaves when theaircraft had one engine fail be-tween the Azores and Gander,Newfoundland and again be-tween Gander and Dartmouth,Nova Scotia where she finallycompleted her journey home onJune 17, 1945.

After her arrival she was as-signed to No. 662 HB (heavybomber) Wing. Jenkins quotedone of the ferry crew, Rudy StGermain, in his pilot logbookwhich encapsulates the feeling ofthe crew as they neared home:

“Flying the Atlantic alone -because in spite of others - youfeel alone, with the sun over youand nothing between you and thesea but this man-made machine,a Lancaster, that once seemed sohuge but is now dwarfed by theimmensity of space; yet is wing-ing its way confidently towardssome known place on the otherside of the world, the Azores,Newfoundland and finally goodold Canada.”

Having all returned to Canada,Jenkins and his original crewwere then given a well-deserved37 days leave before they wouldrejoin their unit for deploymentto the Pacific.

However, with the dropping ofthe atomic bombs on Hiroshimaand Nagasaki and Japan’s subse-quent formal unconditional sur-render on Sept. 2, 1945, TigerForce was no longer needed andthe unit was disbanded on Sept.5, 1945.

With the war now at an end,large-scale demobilization soonfollowed and KB895, along withmost of the approximately 230Lancasters in Canada, wereslated to be placed into storage.

Demobilization, retirementWith the end of the war

Canada’s military quickly beganto demobilize and with no immi-nent or nearby enemy in sight itwas decided that Canada had noneed of a large long-rangebomber force.

A small number of Lancasterswere kept in RCAF service to beconverted for various duties in-cluding survey, search and res-cue, training, and testingpurposes but it was decided thatmost of the aircraft in Canadawould be put into storage.

Many of the newer Canadianbuilt Lancasters (the FM series)were be put into storage at activeRCAF bases while most of theremaining older Lancasters (theKB series) would be put into longterm storage at inactive basessuch as old BCTAP airfields.

Lady Orchid was one of 83Canadian Lancasters transferredto Pearce, Alberta. Pearce hadserved as a BCATP base duringthe war from March 1942 to Jan-uary 1945 and had been home toNo. 36 Elementary Flying Train-ing School, No. 3 Air ObserverSchool and No. 2 Flying Instruc-tors School.

It now served as a storagedepot and scrap yard for theRoyal Canadian Air Force andbecame a temporary home formany of the Lancasters beforethey moved onto long-term stor-age or disposal.

Lady Orchid was flown fromDartmouth to Pearce via Toronto,Ontario and Gimli, Manitoba andarrived at Pearce on Sept. 8,1945. She would remain onstrength with the No. 2 Air Com-mand at Pearce from Sept. 11,1945 until Jan. 22, 1947 whenshe was struck off charge andflown to Penhold, Alberta by F/LH Buocher and turned over toCrown Assets for final disposal.

After mustering out of theRCAF, Ron Jenkins returned tohis hometown of Calgary. His fa-ther had passed away a fewmonths before the end of the warso he now took over the family’sbusiness and soon became a suc-cessful businessman in his ownright.

In 1947 he heard through afriend that his old Lancaster wasup for sale and decided to pur-chase it so he could remove all ofthe instrument panels and seatsfrom the various crew stationsand send them to his crew as sou-venirs of their service together.

According to the transcript ofan interview Jenkins did in 1975,Crown Assets agreed to sell him

Lady Orchid for $300 if he prom-ised to never try to obtain a Cer-tificate of Airworthiness for theaircraft and if he agreed to sellone of the Merlin engines toSAIT (Southern Alberta Instituteof Technology in Calgary) andone to NAIT (Northern AlbertaInstitute of Technology in Ed-monton) for $100 each.

So on April 12, 1947 Ron pur-chased KB895, but now he had tofigure out how to move her off ofthe storage facility at Penhold tosomewhere he could have the air-craft worked on. He soon learnedthrough another friend whoworked in real estate that therewas a farmer by the name of Clif-ford Doan who had an interest inaviation and whose farm wasnext to the storage facility. Hecontacted Doan and asked him ifhe would like to have what re-mained of KB895 for free if hecould move the Lancaster ontohis property and work on remov-ing the various crew station parts.

They ended up cutting thefence between the property andthe storage facility and thentowed Lady Orchid onto the farm.Jenkins and some hired help thenset about removing the variousparts, including the entire rear tur-ret for tail gunner Bruce Bairdand the pilot instrument panel andseat for himself. He then left whatremained of her with Doan.

The farmer considered turningthe aircraft’s fuselage into a ma-chine shop and tool shed, butafter mounting the aircraft onthree cement columns he lost in-terest in the project. As KB895’sgutted remains sat slowly decay-ing in rural Alberta, it seemedthat Lady Orchid’s days of serv-ice were over.

FM213 resurrectedLike Lady Orchid, Lancaster

Mk. X FM213 was built at Vic-tory Aircraft and was taken onstrength with the RCAF on Aug.21, 1945, but unlike Lady Orchidshe was completed too late toparticipate in the war in Europeor to be assigned to Tiger Force,so she was immediately put instorage at the RCAF base inTrenton, Ontario.

With the dawning of the ColdWar in 1950 Canada quickly re-alized that there was a desperateneed for long range aircraft to pa-trol the nation’s vast coastlines,so it was decided to convert ap-proximately 70 Lancasters intomaritime patrol and reconnais-sance aircraft.

Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum BCATP aircraft – Stearman, TigerMoth and two Cornells. Photo courtesy Kool Shots

BCATP Fly-in May 28, 2016(Weather date May 29)

Last year’s BCATP Fly-In wasscrubbed due to bad weather. Theschedule for 2016 allowed us toadd a weather date in for the nextday.

One of Canada’s most distinc-tive contributions to the SecondWorld War was the British Com-monwealth Air Training Plan(BCATP). The BCATP providedtraining facilities for all parts ofthe Commonwealth.

Building and operating a na-tionwide flight training schoolwas a complex task. In mostcases, sights had to be chosen,land purchased and runways,hangars, barracks and other sup-port buildings needed to be con-structed.

During the frenzied buildingactivities at the start of theBCATP, close to 120 airfieldswere constructed across thecountry. The operation expandedsteadily ultimately employingmore than 104,000 men andwomen including almost 13,000civilians.

To recognize the importanceof the British Commonwealth AirTraining Plan, we are inviting

owners of BCATP-type aircraftto fly-in to the Canadian War-plane Heritage Museum on May28th. Along with our Museum’slarge collection of BCATP air-craft, we are anticipating one ofthe largest gatherings of “YellowBirds” since World War II.Weather permitting, expect to seeFinches, Tiger Moths, Harvards,etc.

Museum BCATP aircraft in-cluding the Tiger Moth, Stear-man, Cornell and Harvard will beavailable for ride-along flightsthat day.

* * *Pilot information – the

BCATP Fly-in is restricted toowners and operators of onlyBCATP type aircraft. There is noaircraft parking available forother type of fly-in aircraft onthis particular day.

For the BCATP aircraft pilots,landing fees will be waived,breakfast and mid-afternoon bar-becue will be provided. Avgaswill not be available. To confirmparticipation, contact eitherLaura Hassard-Moran at 905-679-4183 ext. 236 or lhas-sard@warplane.com or CamHarrod at 647-567-2376 orhamaeroclub@hotmail.com.

BCATP Fly-in adds weather date

Anne Frank

• continued on next page

Photograph taken by Bud Found of Lady Orchid at the Doan farm nearPenhold, Alberta in 1952.

Photo courtesy of the CWHM and the Clarence Simonsen collection

Lancasters• continued from previous page

A.V. Roe Canada (the com-pany formerly known as VictoryAircraft Limited before it was ac-quired from the Canadian gov-ernment by the Hawker SiddeleyGroup in 1945) was contracted tocomplete the conversion, butmany of the aircraft, includingFM213, ended up being con-verted by de Havilland Aircraft ofCanada in Downsview, Ontario.

De Havilland was sub-con-tracted to do the work due to thefact that A.V. Roe was heavilycommitted to producing the newCF-100 jet fighter aircraft and theC-102 Jetliner.

FM213 was removed fromstorage with nine other Lancast-ers and dismantled, and then onAug. 28, 1950 the ten aircraftwere shipped to de Havilland. ByJanuary 1952 FM213’s conver-sion to a Mark 10MR configura-tion was complete.

After flight testing she wasdesignated VC-AGJ and assignedto No. 405 MR Squadron inGreenwood, Nova Scotia. Butafter the crash landing at Trenton,Ontario on Jan. 24, 1952 itseemed that her short-lived careerwas over and she would bedoomed to be scrapped for spareparts.

The RCAF would have a totalof approximately 100 Lancastersconverted to various configura-tions after the war, but when theCanadian government made thedecision to convert a large num-ber of Lancasters as a quick wayto build a maritime patrol force in1950, they soon realized that theAir Force had nowhere near thenumber of aircraft needed re-maining in their inventory.

Though the RCAF still hadsome of the newer FM seriesLancasters in storage, most of the230 that were on strength in 1945had been sold off by Crown As-sets during the latter half of the1940s. The Canadian governmentsoon found that it needed to buyback many of the aircraft theyhad just disposed of and begansearching for airworthy airframesand parts.

Soon after the announcementthat Canada would be returning alarge number of Lancasters toservice N.K. “Bud” and S.R.“Mickey” Found of FoundBrothers Aviation in Malton,

who were looking for money tofinance a prototype aircraft(FBA-1A bush plane) for theirfledgling company, rememberedthat many Lancasters had beensold off in Alberta and were soonscouring the province for aircraftand parts.

Eventually they found a totalof 50 complete airframes plusextra Merlin engines and a hugeamount of spare parts, much ofwhich they acquired from afarmer from High River, Albertaby the name of Albert Hoving.

He had purchased 44 air-frames, 20 Merlin engines and alarge collection of spares fromCrown Assets with the intentionof melting them all down for thealuminum and then selling it forthe manufacture of pots and pans.

The brothers ended up pay-ing Hoving approximately$1,000 per aircraft, but then sold

the Lancasters they found in Al-berta to the Canadian Govern-ment for $10,000 per aircraft.Needless to say the FoundBrothers got their project off theground and the Canadian gov-ernment found that they wereseriously regretting selling offthe aircraft for $400 each only afew years previously.

Found Brothers Aviationwould go onto build a number ofdifferent types of bush planesthroughout the 1950s and 1960sbefore the company finallyclosed in late 1968.

It would be Bud Found whowould now help save FM213 aswell. By 1952 all the remainingserviceable Lancasters that wereleft in Canada had been con-verted to various new configura-tions or had long since beenscrapped, so when the accident toFM213 occurred the RCAF knewof no remaining Lancaster air-frames in Canada that could beused to repair the aircraft.

However Bud Found remem-bered that during the brothers’hunt for aircraft in Alberta theyhad seen a derelict Lancaster ona farm in Penhold that was too fargone to be a candidate for restora-tion and conversion, but he be-lieved that the centre sectioncould be salvaged and used tosave FM213.

Lady Orchid would now be al-lowed to render one more service

to her country. The governmentquickly contacted Clifford Doanand a salvage crew was dis-patched to Penhold to removeLady Orchid’s centre section.Meanwhile a large flatcar wassent to Alberta to carry the hugesection to de Havilland Aircraft.

The section was mated withFM213 in July of 1953 and onAugust 26, 1953 she was testflown and considered ready to bereturned to service.

By this time many of the mar-itime reconnaissance Lancasterswere being replaced with newertypes of aircraft so FM213 wouldbe assigned to No. 107 RU (Res-cue Unit) in Torbay, Newfound-land when she returned to serviceand was given the squadron codeVC-AGS which was laterchanged to CX 213.

She would serve with this unitfor about 10 years as a searchand rescue aircraft. Most of hertime was spent patrolling the At-lantic and responding to distresscalls but she also served as an es-cort aircraft three separate timesfor aircraft carrying members ofthe royal family to Canada in1957 and 1958, helped escortRCAF fighters deploying to Eu-rope during Operation JumpMoat IV in June, 1958, andwould call on Greenland, Ice-land, Scotland and the Azoresduring her travels over the years.

On Nov. 6, 1963 she was fi-nally retired from service andwas sent into storage in Dunville,Ontario. She was finally struckoff charge on June 30, 1964.

FM213 would remain storedin Dunville, Ontario until she waspurchased by the Royal CanadianLegion Branch 109 in Goderich,Ontario for approximately$1200-$1300. She was flowndown to Sky Harbour Airport inGoderich on June 14, 1964 be-fore being officially struck offcharge in the RCAF and wassoon mounted on three pylonsoutside the Legion.

After remaining on displayoutside Branch 109 for 13 years,it was realized that the legioncould no longer afford the cost ofmaintaining the aircraft and theybegan looking to sell her. It wasat this point that the CanadianWarplane Heritage Museum,which had been searching for aLancaster to restore, looked overthe FM213 and realized it was anexcellent candidate for restora-tion to flying condition.

Initially the two parties couldnot reach an agreement on ac-quiring the Lancaster but it wasat this point that Bruce Sully, asuccessful Goderich business-man, agreed to create a scholar-ship trust fund for children of thelegion members through hisfoundation in exchange for thelegion donating FM213 to theCanadian Warplane HeritageMuseum.

CWH FLIGHTLINES MAY 2016 3

Lady Orchid’s centre section after its removal.Photo courtesy of the CWHM and the Clarence Simonsen collection

A message fromChairman Christopher H. Freeman

andPresident/CEO David G. Rohrer The story of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum’s

flying Lancaster, one of only two Lancaster aircraft still flyingin the world today, is legendary to say the least. From 1977 when the RCAF FM 213 was first acquired from

the Royal Canadian Legion in Goderich, Ontario with the helpof the Sulley Foundation to 1988 when it was first flown afterbeing fully restored as the “Mynarski Memorial Lancaster”KB726 VR-A, to today having successfully flown the aircraft for27 years in museum flight operations; the Lancaster continuesto be the worthy recipient of thousands of museum membersand supporters, who have all made this dream possible.Our Lancaster was built by Victory Aircraft in Malton, On-

tario in 1945, at the current site of Lester B. Pearson Interna-tional Airport by fellow Canadians and is the crown jewel ofthe museum collection. Over the last 27 years this iconic air-craft has been flown in memory of the thousands of Canadianairmen, ground crew, and civilian workers at home who servedour country in time of need and has inspired many new gen-erations of Canadians to learn about this era of sacrifice.In 2014 we successfully completed a seven-week “UK Lanc

Tour” and united the last two airworthy Lancasters in the worldin a “Once in a Lanc Time” aerial display and salute to theBomber Command Veterans, both past and present. As such our Lancaster VR-A was the last Lancaster to fly

the North Atlantic and although she was 69 years old, per-formed flawlessly on the Trans-Atlantic flights. Thanks to supporters such as yourself we have been able

to overhaul three of the Packard Merlin 224 engines over thepast few years and make provisions to replace all four pro-pellers as and when due. This year we need to overhaul the 4th engine which is near-

ing the end of its normal operating life. Fortunately the mu-seum already has all the professional contacts and normalbusiness relationships in place with the two engine overhaulfacilities that have the capability to overhaul these V12 en-gines and we will be able to operate VR-A throughout theplanned overhaul sequence, but the cost of this engine over-haul and specialty work is significant. With your continued faithful financial support and special

donations in support of the “Lancaster Engine Overhaul Pro-gram” we can raise the funds necessary to keep VR-A in ourCanadian skies for many, many years to come. I hope you will please help us by saying yes to this funding

appeal and that you will also know that by doing so, you are avery important part of the continuing legacy of VR-A and herflying salute to perhaps the “Greatest Generation of Canadi-ans” to ever serve our country.

Thank you most sincerely

For donations of $250 or higher you will receive a replicaof the data plate which is on the engine that is awaiting over-haul.

For the first eight donations of $5,000 or greater you willreceive a mounted Merlin 224 V12 cylinder and plaque fromthe engine which flew on VR-A as the last Lancaster to flythe North Atlantic when she crossed the Atlantic eastboundon August 5-8, 2014 and returned flying westbound on Sep-tember 23-28, 2014.

Visit warplane.comand click on “Donate Today”on the lower left of the screen

• continued on page 6

Two Lancasters • continued from previous page

4 CWH FLIGHTLINES MAY 2016 CWH FLIGHTLINES MAY 5

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6 CWH FLIGHTLINES MAY 2016

EEarly on during therestoration of theCanadian War-plane Heritage Museum’sAvro Lancaster FM213,it was decided that theaircraft would be paintedin the markings of P/OAndrew Mynarski whoflew with RCAF No. 419(Moose) Squadron.

Andrew Mynarski was awardedthe Victoria Cross, the Common-wealth’s highest award for gallantry,on June 13, 1944, when his Lancasterwas shot down in flames, by a Ger-man night fighter.

As the bomber fell, he attemptedto free the tail gunner trapped in therear turret of the blazing and out ofcontrol aircraft. The tail gunnermiraculously survived the crash andlived to tell the story, but sadly An-drew Mynarski died from his severeburns.

FM213 didn’t receive her newpaint scheme of KB726, VR-A until1988 but in 1984, was officially ded-icated to the memory of Andrew My-narski at a ceremony that includedseveral of the original Mynarski crew.

From that time forward, the Cana-dian Warplane Heritage Museum’sLancaster was known as the “My-narski Memorial Lancaster” until2014 when it picked up the nicknameVeRA for the UK tour, but that’s an-other story.

During the eighties, original VR-A pilot Art de Breyne often visitedHamilton airport to check on theprogress of the restoration. Upon see-ing the Lancaster for the first timepainted as “his” aircraft – KB726,VR-A, he was both honoured that theLancaster was now a living memorialto one special man and sad for all theuntold stories of the many othercrews who did not survive.

For over 25 years now, visitors tothe Canadian Warplane Heritage Mu-seum have come to see, hear andeven fly in the “Mynarski MemorialLancaster” as well as learn about An-drew Mynarski and his heroic at-tempt to save tail gunner, Pat Brophy.

During this time, the paint schemehas remained as VR-A, except for theodd television or movie appearancethat necessitated some very temporarymarkings. Unlike the Battle of BritainMemorial Flight who change theiraircraft paint schemes every fewyears, the Canadian Warplane Her-itage Museum rarely change schemes.

Over the years, there had beensome interest in possibly changingthe markings, which was met with re-sistance – and rightfully so. However,these days museums need to remainrelevant and be able to engage thegeneral public.

In June of 2014, VR-A was tem-porarily transformed into VR-R,KB772, “Ropey” with the eye- catch-ing shark teeth painted on the enginenacelles. Although the original“Ropey” survived the war with 65

missions, there wasn’t much more in-formation available about its history.

The new temporary schemeproved to be popular with museumvisitors, photographers and even themedia. VR-A markings were back onthe Lancaster in time for the historicUK trip in August of 2014.

Following up on the popularity ofthe “Ropey” paint scheme change, re-search began to find a suitable 2015temporary scheme but this time onethat offered up a more in depth storyfor the museum to tell. It didn’t takelong for KB732 to jump to the frontof the line.

KB732, VR-X, “X-TERMINA-TOR” was arguably the greatest of allof the Canadian built Lancasters,completing more operational flightsagainst the enemy than any otherCanadian Lancaster (84 missions).The museum even tracked down thelast known surviving crew memberof “X-TERMINATOR”, Don Mc-Taggart, and surprised him with aLancaster flight in “his” markings.

* * *With only 10.5 hours on the air-

frame, Lancaster FM213 was heavilydamaged when the undercarriage col-lapsed at Trenton during a 1951 ferryflight to its latest assignment atGreenwood, Nova Scotia with No.405 Squadron. The centre sectionwas badly damaged and the aircraftwas almost considered unsalvage-able.

However, a replacement centresection was located in Penhold, Al-berta from Lancaster KB895 – awartime veteran with 35 missions.After the repairs were completed,FM213 could be considered a hybridof sorts – part FM213 and partKB895.

This tie-in makes it the perfectchoice for the temporary paintscheme for the summer of 2016,while the original Mynarski schemeremains on the starboard side.KB895 was known as “Lady Or-chid” and had nose art that featureda blonde lady straddling a big blackbomb as she holds two black pistols.

With so many Canadian Lan-caster wartime schemes to choosefrom – Ruhr Express, Sugar’s Blues,Rabbit Stew, Piccadilly Princess toname a few – there are many yearsof history to portray while fulfillingpart of the museum’s mandate tohouse supportive exhibits in tributeto the thousands of men and womenwho built, serviced and flew theseaircraft and in memory of those whodid not return.

Mynarski Memorial Lanc,VeRA, gets new nose art

On July 1, 1977 the museum officially ac-quired FM213. On Nov. 5, 1979, after twoyears’ work dismantling and preparing herfor transport, No. 450 Hel (Helicopter)Squadron transported the main body of theaircraft to the CWH Museum at the HamiltonInternational Airport.

After nearly a decade of restoration workFM213 returned to the skies on Sept. 11,1988. She now wore the colours and desig-nation of KB726 VR-A of No. 419 (Moose)Squadron as a memorial to P/O (Pilot Offi-cer) Andrew Mynarski (RCAF) who posthu-mously won the Victoria Cross on a raid thenight of June 12-13 1944 over Cambrai.

FM213 in the guise of VeRA is now anenduring memorial to those who served inBomber Command in World War Two andone of only two Lancasters in the world thathave been restored to flying condition.

KB895 also lives on today. In the summerof 2011, the Aero Space Museum of Calgarycompleted the static restoration of the Lan-caster in their collection, FM136. She was an-other Mark X / Mark 10MR conversion thatserved in No. 32 MU (Maintenance Unit),No. 419 B (Bomber), No. 404 MP (MaritimePatrol) and No. 407 MR Squadrons duringher time in the RCAF, and Ron Jenkins had ahand in preserving her as well.

In 1962 a group led by Lynn Garrisonfound FM136 in relatively good shape instorage in Fort Macleod, Alberta and pur-chased her for $975 in the hopes of display-ing the aircraft at the Calgary airport as a warmemorial.

He faced quite an uphill battle due to lackof local support but in the end, with the helpof a few local political, business, and medialeaders (including Ron Jenkins), Garrisonmanaged to get the project completed.

FM136 remained mounted on a pedestalat the airport for 30 years until she was trans-ferred from the City of Calgary to Aero

Space Museum of Calgary for restoration.She is now on display at the museum in theguise of Lady Orchid as a memorial to Cana-dians and Albertans who served in BomberCommand in the Second World War and toRon Jenkins. There is also a reproduction ofLady Orchid’s nose artwork painted byClarence Simonsen in the nose art gallery atthe Bomber Command Museum in Nanton,Alberta.

Ron Jenkins not only became a multi-millionaire after the war but was a greatcommunity leader as well, having served asCEO, President or General Manager of ap-proximately 20 companies and organiza-tions including the Chamber of Commerce,the Rotary Club, the Canadian National In-stitute for the Blind, the YMCA and theCalgary Stampede. He passed away onApril 30, 1976.

After his passing a number of hiswartime artefacts were donated to the AeroSpace Museum of Calgary, including thepilot’s seat and instrument panel that he hadremoved from Lady Orchid many years be-fore. The instrument panel would later beinstalled in FM136 during the aircraft’srestoration.

Over the past few years the CanadianWarplane Heritage has honoured famousCanadian Lancaster bombers by addingtheir nose art to FM213. This year the mu-seum will honouring this incredible storyby painting Lady Orchid’s nose art onVeRA and allowing her to fly again – a fit-ting tribute considering that one of themajor reasons FM213 is still flying is dueto the piece of Lady Orchid she carries tothis day.

The Lady Orchid paint scheme will bedebuted next month at the Flyfest weekendon June 18 and 19 at the Canadian WarplaneHeritage Museum and will remain until theend of the summer.

AcknowledgementsThe author would

like to acknowledge thegenerous assistance re-ceived from the follow-ing sources: theCanadian WarplaneHeritage Museum, theBomber CommandMuseum Nanton, theAero Space Museum ofCalgary, Elinor Flo-rence, and especiallyClarence Simonsenwhose books, articlesand other research wereinvaluable resources inthe writing of this fasci-nating story.

Lancasters • continued from page 3

At left:LancasterFM213 inflightduringher timewith No.107 RU inthe early1960s.

Photocourtesyof theCWHM

FM213 flypast on arrival to Goderich Airport in 1964, the last time shewould fly until 1988. Photo courtesy of the CWHM

CWH FLIGHTLINES MAY 2016 7

By Pamela Rickards, Vice President - Operations

What an exciting start to the year here at our museum! Wehave had some very successful trade shows at our facility whichhas brought many new visitors to our museum. We also have a travelling exhibit from the Anne Frank museum

in Amsterdam which is becoming very popular. It will be here atthe museum until August so if you have the opportunity to dropin and visit us please make time to view this impressive display.We have, unfortunately, lost a few of our members and sup-

porters over the last number of months and I would like to takethis opportunity to say how much we appreciate the bequests thatwe have, and continue, to receive from people who considerCanadian Warplane Heritage in their planned giving. These gen-erous donations enable the museum to continue with our man-date to preserve and maintain this vital part of Canada’s richaviation heritage. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have

once again contributed to our “Keep us Flying” campaign this yearand if you have not yet contributed please read the message fromthe President/CEO and the Chairman to understand our requestfor financial assistance for our Lancaster. Your financial supportis very important to us and is very much appreciated.With the many events that are held here at the museum, I

would like to suggest that you bookmark our website www.war-plane.com and visit regularly to keep up-to-date on the happen-ings here at Mount Hope. Our secure on-line shopping section can accept new member-

ships, membership renewals and donations electronically.Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is proud to recognize

those supporters who have made significant contributions to ourMuseum of the past few months and we are thrilled to add thefollowing to our donor walls:

“Wings of Gold” Major Donor Wall – $25,000 - $49,999Steve Dobrus

“Friends of Flight” Memorial Hangar Doors –$1,000 - $4,999In Memory of Roy Hammel, Nov. 3, 1938 – Dec. 17, 2015

“Friends of Flight” Donor Wall – $500Lois Aileen Menzies Tressam BrownIn Memory of Greg Morton – RAF EnthusiastLes Anderson, RCAF (Wireless), 426/431 Sq. DFC, – Love Aunt Pat & Family

Life Members now include: Barbara Maisonneuve

DevelopmentOffice update EE

njoy a day at the CanadianWarplane Heritage Mu-seum and celebrate our

iconic Canadian-built Avro Lan-caster.

As a special offering, eachpaid admission (Adult and Senioronly) that day will receive achance to win a flight in the Lan-caster that day – the draw takesplace at 2 p.m. with the flight at3 p.m. The winner must be onsitewhen the draw takes place.

Mark Peapell’s presentation“The Malton Lankys” will be an-other highlight of the day. Theproduction of the 430 Lancasteraircraft at Malton, Ontario, wasthe largest wartime aircraft pro-gram in Canada. For a countrythat was largely agrarian and re-covering from the Depression, thebuilding of the Lancaster bomberwas a huge accomplishment.

A workforce of over 9,000,would lay the foundation thatwould lead to Canada’s first jetairliner, the CF-100 and ulti-mately the Arrow. This well illus-trated presentation tells the storyof building the Canadian Lan-caster. An untold story that in-volves all Canadian staples,including hockey and politics.

You can tour inside the Lan-caster (minimum $5 donation)from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. MarkPeapell’s presentation, “The Mal-ton Lankys” is at 1 p.m. in theDome. The draw for the Lan-caster flight will take place at 2p.m. in the Dome, with the Lan-caster flight taking place at 3 p.m.

We are also encouraging asmany Lancaster crew Veterans toattend as possible. They will re-ceive free admission for them-selves and two guests. ContactErin Napier at 905-679-4183 ext.245 or erin@warplane.com to re-ceive VIP parking.

Regular admission rates apply9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Celebrate Lancaster Day July 9, 2016

A Lancaster on the production line at VictoryAircraft in Malton, Ontario.

Photo courtesy Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Canada

PPut yourself in the cockpit and soar above the clouds inyour own P-51 Mustang as you step inside a traveling im-mersion exhibit featuring the original film, Rise Above,on a 160-degree panoramic screen in a 30-seat temperature-con-trolled movie theater.

The Rise Above Traveling Exhibit highlights the courage anddetermination of the Tuskegee Airmen, who overcame obstaclesto train and fight as U.S. Army Air Corps pilots, and what itmeans to us 60 years later.

The Rise Above Traveling Exhibit is making its first-evervisit to Canada – at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.The Commemorative Air Force’s P-51D Mustang is also flyingin to be displayed with the exhibit from August 24 to 28, thissummer.

FeaturingMark Peapell’spresentation“The Malton

Lankys”

Above:On Saturday, August 27th,CWH welcomes the RiseAbove Traveling Exhibit.We are also hoping tohave some Tuskegee

Veterans in attendance.

Far right:Commemorative AirForce’s Red NoseP-51D Mustang.

Triumph over adversity – Rise Above!

Rise Above Traveling Exhibit

8 CWH FLIGHTLINES MAY 2016

By Ted Lowrey

EEach year the CanadianAviation Hall of Fame,based in Alberta, inductsnew members to its list of thosewho have contributed to Cana-dian aviation history.

On June 4, 2015 the inductionceremony was held in Toronto, atPearson Airport. One of the fournew inductees was a past RCAFmember who has visited ourCWH Museum both as a seniorofficial, and just as a familyfriend.

During WW II this visitor wasa Dakota pilot in the Far East;(my father was the Dakota navi-gator). Perhaps what was reallyimportant to these two men wasthat they were golfing buddies –any time, any place, any course,whenever they had a chance.

The man named to the Hall ofFame – the late Colonel (ret’d)O.B. Philp, CM, DFC, CD. Al-though O.B. had a long and var-ied career in the Canadian AirForce the award was given on thebasis of him being the drivingspirit behind the founding of theCanadian Snowbirds aerobaticteam, – “the Father of the Snow-birds”.

A number of years ago, whenthe Snowbirds appeared at aCWH Airshow, O.B. was on sitefor the show. Who did he invite toCWH as his special guest? – Fly-ing Officer (ret’d) Jack Lowrey,his WW II Dakota navigator, andmy father.

O.B. and my father first flewtogether Jan. 14, 1944, in a Ven-tura, at Pennfield Ridge, NewBrunswick. My father’s personaldiary also notes that location astheir first game of golf together.From that point on, wherever inthe world they were stationed,when they were on leave, they

headed to a golf course, and en-joyed golfing with each other.

They played the Royal Edin-burgh course. In the Far East,when on leave in Calcutta, theyplayed the Royal Calcutta GolfCourse.

As late as 1993, when O.B.and his wife Maeve, flew fromtheir home in British Columbia toOttawa, so that O.B. could be-come a Member of the Order ofCanada, the return trip included astop at my parents’ house in An-caster, for the better part of aweek, so that the two men couldcontinue golfing at my father’scourse, the Hamilton Golf andCountry Club.

I was able to persuadethe two men to take oneafternoon away from thegolf course so the threeof us could visit theCWH Museum. I clearlyremember walking intothe old hangars (thatwere then our museum),seeing all the aircraft,and asking O.B. howmany of them he couldfly. He took a few min-utes, considered each air-craft, and then said to me“All of them” (The mu-seum had 22 different aircraft onsite at that time).

When O.B. retired from ourAir Force his log books showedhe’d piloted 79 different militaryaircraft (There were only twowith my father – Oxfords and

Dakotas). His logs also showed8,246 hours flown. Some of thattime was in the Far East with myfather and the other two crewmembers, Freddie and Les. Theyflew a complete tour – 700hours – there. My father’s log

book shows 705:35 hours for thecomplete tour.

On our tour of the museum, atone point I noticed my father andO.B. at the tail of our Dakota,talking quietly, laughing, talkingquietly again, and laughing somemore. Later I asked O.B. whatthat conversation was about. Hetold me how beginning Aug. 24,1945, Canadian squadrons 435and 436 started to return theirDakotas from their bases in Indiaand Burma to England – DownAmpney for their aircraft – so theDakotas could be reassigned andcontinue being used. The flight toEngland was to take seven days.Their flight took 11 days becausethere were cities that their Dakota“made them stop at.” Then O.B.said to me very quietly “Youknow your father wouldn’t evertell you this.”

I hope you enjoy the snapshotsof O.B. and my father taken in1944-’45 and 1993.

O.B. passed away in 1995. Upearly and getting ready for work,I heard the news on the radio. Icalled my father to tell him thesad news (It’s always best to hearof the loss of a dear friend fromsomeone close to you).

My father passed away in1997. A few weeks after his deathI got a letter of sympathy fromMaeve Philp. She wrote, “Youshould know that your father isup in heaven now, with O.B.;they’re on the first tee of the Ce-lestial Golf Course figuring outwho’s going to hit first.”

I felt better. I knew where myfather was, and that he was withan old and dear friend, doingsomething that they had always somuch enjoyed doing – together.

The picture from the Hall of Fame induction – O.B. Philp and JackLowrey in Burma, in 1945. Photo courtesy the Philp family

O.B. Philp (above left, and below, on the right) and Jack Lowrey by ourCWH Dakota, in 1993 (They flew the original KN456).

Photos courtesy Ted Lowrey

Traffic flows smoothly on the streets of Rawilpindi, India - September, 1944.Photo courtesy the Lowrey family

Jack Lowrey putting on the 14th hole at the Royal Calcutta Golf Course –April, 1945. Photo courtesy the Lowrey family

O.B. andmy father