The Ferry Command RAF
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FERRY COMMAND ARTICLES Montreal Gazette wartime archives

I’ve always known that my father was in the Ferry Command in WWII, not that I was impressed by the fact. It seemed like one of the more boring jobs to do during a war, ferry planes around. And the fact that he flew 'Mosquitoes made it sound even less important.I didn’t pay any attention when he spoke of his war experiences or when he told me about how many of his friends in the Ferry Command perished. (Well, isn’t that typical.) I do recall reading his ‘log book’ as a child and being impressed that he had flown over the Amazon.

It is only lately, that my husband (who is interested in all things military, and is a related to General Douglas MacArthur through his grandmother – a first cousin) told me that the Ferry Command was headquartered in Montreal.

Suddenly, it all made sense… and not only that, I could see where I FIT IN. I exist because my father,an RAF enlistee, met my French Canadian mother at a party because – as a member of the Ferry Command- he was posted at Dorval Airport during the war.

I have since learned more about Ferry Command from a PBS documentary I purchased, Flying the Secret Skies.

All very illuminating.

The Ferry Command at first was a secret civilian operation. The US wasn’t in the war (and lots of Americans wanted it to stay that way). But the Allies were losing the war, especially the air war and needed planes. Some Americans were indeed keen on helping the war effort (the US President for one, and many young men who joined the Royal Canadian Air Force). Industrialists (for profit and altruism)were making planes for the Allies but, due to peacetime rules, these planes couldn’t be flown to England. So they were flown to North Dakota, pushed over the border, where they were disassembled, taken by rail to Montreal , sent by boat to England and reassembled, if they cargo ships weren’t sunk. Not very effective.

Churchill enlisted Lord Beaverbrook to find a better solution. He set up a system where planes would be flown from Canada by American civilian pilots who were highly skilled (only about 5 % of applicants were enlisted)and highly paid. 1000 dollars a month.

Of course, this was danger pay, as few planes had ever flown the North Atlantic and they would be called upon to do it regularly, in freezing cold planes using only the stars for navigation. And if they fell, no glory. For this was a covert operation.

It all worked our reasonably well, and the men flew out of Dorval at night, to Gander and then on to Prestwick, choosing whatever route they thought best, and returned on long 14 day boat voyage. (many planes perished, of course.) In between the pilots partied, in gay Montreal and mostly at the Mount Royal Hotel, as they were young, and had a tonne of money to throw at the women.

When American came into the war (after Pearl Harbour) the Royal Air Force took over this Ferry Command and started training their own pilots. My Dad, who had been in the voluntary reserve in England was one such person. I have his training manual (I lost the log book) which shows he was ‘average’ as a trainee, despite being a top athlete with excellent eye sight.) He trained in Assinaboa Saskatchewan on Harvards.

These enlisted soldiers had tiny salaries so I doubt he partied at the Mount Royal. Besides my Dad was by nature cheap with money.

He mostly flew Mosquitoes, during the war. He had told me that. The de Havilland DH 98 Mosquito was made in Canada and this link suggests it was a very important airplane to the war effort, a versatile, lightweight and wily airplane. (My brother says my father told him when he flew them, they had double fuel tanks and were not easy to navigate.)

My father ferried this plane all over the world, not only in the North Atlantic. By this time, they pilots were flying back to Canada, over a dozen men crammed, like so many icicles, into the belly of a bomber.

The Imperial War Museum has a photo in their collection of Ferry Command Pilots in a lounge and I am fairly certain one of the men is my father. (Only a daughter could tell.)

So, as it turns out, the Ferry Command was extremely important during the War.

It may have saved the day.

Which makes it ironic that the civilian pilots who flew for the Command were not considered Veterans- and were not entitled to veteran’s benefits.

My own father died of Alzheimer’s and his story has an opposite twist . He spent the last years of his life in the Veteran’s Hospital in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, which is a fine facility with a caring and knowledgeable staff and many wonderful volunteers. He was well taken care of. But my mother and I had trouble getting him into the facility at first. As an RAF pilot, he was considered a foreign soldier, even though he had taken Canadian citizenship years before and therefore was not eligible to stay at the Veteran’s any more than an enemy soldier. Imagine!.

I recall a nurse telling me, “What next? Are we to take German soldiers?” I was quite astonished by this comment.

I pushed and pushed, even writing my MP, but to no avail. Then my mother found my father’s training log, which says RCAF. He trained in Canada as part of the RCAF! So he got into the Veteran’s Hospital.

The Ferry Command was a kind of hybrid Canadian/American/US project and my father benefitted from this fact, in the end.

I have found a book, Ocean Bridge, about the Ferry Command and have ordered it, so I will have more to write on this subject. I highly recommend the documentary Flying the Secret Skies. Like all good documentaries, it tells the hitherto obscure story of the Ferry Command simply and carefully, and the DVD has some good computer graphics to jazz it up. And it tells a great anecdote about the Ferry Command and Sir Winston Churchill.