This is a tale of the Lion, The Moose, and the Ghost; an unlikely trio who battled the forces of evil. In the midst of all three is a young man.  He’s tall and athletic, young and foolish (his words, not mine) and guarded by angels.   

The royal lion introduced the young man to a King and his daughter, the Princess.  The stately moose carried him safely to and from faraway lands.  The ghost soared with him to the heavens only to send him spiralling back down to earth into a perilous adventure. 

There was a legend among WWII Royal Canadian Air Force veterans that no one from the RCAF’s Ghost Squadron ever returned.  I know of at least one survivor. 

The following is a record of World War Two memories of a man named Charles Roche.  You don’t know who he is because he’s not famous, but he was part of a huge number of young Canadians who went to war in the nineteen-forties.   

I taped hours of monologue and then wrote everything down almost word for word.  Charlie is an interesting person who loves to talk.  I did a little bit of editing, but I wanted to keep Charlie’s voice.  Then I had the tremendous task of arranging everything into a timeline and doing research to double-check some things.  Archives about World War Two are now open to the public.  Looking into German archives is almost overwhelming.  The Nazis were great at keeping records and photographs, quite amazing, and sad.  What I studied in history class didn’t even come close to the awful reality of the war. 

Charlie was in the Royal Canadian Air Force and his older brother Norbert was in the British Royal Air Force. He joined early in the war before the RCAF got involved therefore Norbert has an extensive war record, but this is Charlie’s project, so I won’t be mentioning Norbert very often.  

The writing that is in Italics is Charlie talking.  The comments and other writing are mine.  

In The Beginning 

I never had an education, just high school because of the war.  I was there for four years when I should’ve been at University.  That was my education – the war!  It helps to be young and stupid; it was the only way I got through the war and adjusted to being home again.  I tried to forget about the four years of war; I didn’t want to talk about it.  I never told anybody where I was or what happened, even my family heard only bits and pieces, never the whole thing.  Now, since my eighties, it’s funny, but that’s all I want to talk about. 

I might have gone into the army – I had a choice.  I headed down to Bishop street in Montreal and joined the air force, The Royal Canadian Air Force, not the Royal Air Force.  This was late in 1942, I was eighteen years old.  Another fellow I used to know, I played golf with him; we both joined at the same time.  I don’t know where he ended up, but that’s how I joined the air force.  My parents waited for my brother to return from Great Britain after his tour of operations. Before I even went over – my dad – I didn’t even know that then – but my dad wrote a letter to a Member of Parliament.  So they delayed me a couple of months!  I wondered what it was at the beginning.  My brother returned home and then they took me in.  I was already registered but they put me off for a couple of months.  My dad didn’t want to lose two, but my brother wasn’t finished.  My dad thought at least, let one return.  He returned and I went off to war.  

See some colourized images of Montreal in the 1940″s: https://youtu.be/lnL6ZfeptqU

By nineteen forty-two there were a lot of families in my neighbourhood who had lost family members to the war.  Right next door to us there was a house painter who was German, and he insisted on telling everyone that he supported the Nazis.  The RCMP came out to talk to him but nothing was done.  I don’t understand why they never did anything about him.  Right behind the German’s house was my friend Pete’s home.  When I came home from war, I knew by then that Pete was killed in the war.  He had been on the Lion Squadron at the same time as me and then he was transferred into the Pathfinder Group.  Across the street from us was an RCAF navigator, Bill; he was killed.  We were surrounded by people in the air force and army.  On the next street over was Turcotte, he had been killed in the army and Gagnon as well, he had lived just up the street from us. 

According to my mother’s lifelong friend, Joyce Walker, life during the war in Lachine and Dorval, Quebec was very exciting for young children.  Lachine had planes flying in and out of the region.  Sometimes the airplanes dropped leaflets advertising War Bonds and children would run after the leaflets on the street trying to collect as many as possible.  Then they would save their allowances to buy War Bonds or War Saving Stamps.  Sunday mass would bring in young men, usually air force from all over the world.  Families would invite the aviators for Sunday dinner, realizing that they were far from their own families. 

Canada had to supply food for our troops. Canadians had to make do with whatever they were allowed to buy. Companies like Quaker Oats, among others, gave Canadians recipes to try for tasty, economic meals. One recipe that I still use today came from my Grandmother. She probably used it before the war, during the depression. Here is her recipe which has been updated to use things that might not have been available during the war:

Meatloaf Recipe: 1.5 lbs or 0.680389 kg ground beef, 3/4 cups Quaker Oats, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 1/2 cup chopped onions, 1 egg beaten, 3/4 cup milk, Topping: 1/3 cup catsup, 1 tbs firmly packed brown sugar, 1 tbs prepared mustard. Form individual loaves or 1 large loaf and bake at 350 F for 35 minutes. If you only have packets of flavoured Quaker Oats, it still works, adding the flavouring. I double the amounts for the topping since the topping sinks into the meat.

Swing dancing was popular in the 1940s, it looked so energetic and fun enough to take away worries for a little while. I found a swing dance compilation that looks like it shows the 1940’s and early 1950’s. It’s fun to watch! https://youtu.be/mHANNkKBSNU

Canadian women joined the RCAF as well. A blogger named Elinor Florence has an interesting blog about women in the RCAF. https://www.elinorflorence.com/blog/rcaf-women/

Dorval airport was part of the RAF Ferry Command, moving aircraft to the UK for war service. 

A Montreal company, Canadian Vickers Ltd. built airplanes.  Rolls Royce opened a factory nearby to manufacture airplane engines. All this activity in the Lachine, Dorval area was part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Program. 

Charlie’s first training, basic training was at the No. 5 Manning Depot in Lachine.  Basic training means indoctrination into the armed force’s way of life.  Can you imagine so many young men and women who never would’ve joined the armed forces in normal times, suddenly having to follow military rules?  Living in barracks with people always around you, doing chores, including making your cot every day in a specific way. Following orders, without complaint, knowing and understanding military hierarchy, proper uniforms right down to making sure your boots are shined.  Then there are the basics in marching, saluting, addressing various personnel.  Most of all making sure the recruits understand that they can’t wander off when they feel like it; they are now tethered to the military and the consequences of not following the rules can be severe.

 Charlie said that during the winter at the Manning Depot in Lachine, the recruits were sent out to shovel walkways of some Lachine homes.  He went to his aunt and uncle’s home to help them dig their way out of the snow. His uncle did his part for the war effort by being a volunteer in the home guard in Lachine.  He didn’t wear a special uniform or a helmet, just an armband to signify why he was out and about in the evening on patrol.  There was even a sentry posted at the Lachine canal.  The German U-Boats had caused trouble in Canadian waters so entry by land, sea, and air had to be protected just in case.  

My grandmother told me that in Lachine in the nineteen-thirties there was a German engineer, a man who lived alone in one of the flats on 32nd Avenue.  He worked at the Dominion Bridge Company in Lachine; which was a large engineering company owned by the British.  One night he disappeared.  It was just before Germany marched into Poland.  She said that at the cinema, not long after, on one of the newsreels this engineer was seen on film with Hitler.  He had already been the talk of the neighbourhood, a foreign man living alone in the working class, very Catholic, family orientated Lachine.  He became an infamous spy celebrity after that.  I couldn’t find any information about the rumour, perhaps if I had paid more attention to it when my grandmother was alive, I could’ve spoken to others from the neighbourhood.  A phone call to the RCMP was very frustrating!  Everybody else has opened the wartime files except for the RCMP.  Since they went to see Charlie’s German neighbour I was hoping for some documentation about the German engineer.  Alas, I was told the archives aren’t open to the public, even about the pre-war and war era. 

When I joined they gave me a medical and an assessment for what I could do in the air force. They said; oh boy–you’re playing hockey and sports–you’re what we’re looking for! When they tested my eyes, they said, good you’re farsighted. When I’m playing golf I can see who’s in front of me even if it’s a yard difference.

But when it comes to short-sightedness I have more trouble–so I would’ve had a big problem landing a plane by sight. In those days planes weren’t as sophisticated as today.

There were certain criteria for a pilot. As a child, I had to wear big glasses, but I threw them away all the time and I never wore them after that. But I always had to sit in the back of a theatre or a show – so in the air force since they discovered I was far-sighted they said you have a choice now – but mathematics wasn’t my favourite subject in school so they eliminated navigator – they are highly qualified – so I had a choice of bombardier or gunner – the bombardier is up in the front. So I asked them what’s the quickest training to get overseas? They said air gunner – my brother was a wireless air gunner but the training was a little longer because they had to know a lot about communications.

With us what they did as air gunner they sent us to Queens for navigation and some Morse code as a short course and then they shot us out to MacDonald Manitoba up near Portage La Prairie – we’d go to Winnipeg on occasion – in Manitoba that was for firing at drones – we’d go out and shoot down these drones that were being pulled by another plane with a pilot. We had to be careful not to shoot the other plane. We also had to learn how to shoot .38s and I liked the skeet shooting, we had to learn deflection shooting – I got to be pretty good – I got to like skeet shooting. So they trained me as a gunner.

Getting a blog noticed through search engines is complicated and competitive. That’s why I appreciate Mr. Clempson, President of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 245 Dorval, Quebec. Mr. Clempson put the Ghost Flight link onto the Legion’s Facebook page. He is the first Legion to help get Ghost Flight known. Thank you!