Description
a-c- Photographs of the RCAF C54 North Star airplane the "Rockcliffe Ice Wagon" from January 1951 at North Bay airport
d- The wreck of a three-man RCAF Bolingbroke bomber, Second World War. On 6 January 1942, three Bolingbroke bombers from 8 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, took off from Rockcliffe (at Ottawa), en route to British Columbia to shore up Canada's West Coast defences now that Japan had entered the war. They ran into a winter storm in the North Bay area. One returned to Rockcliffe. A
second Bolingbroke tried to do the same and crashlanded, I believe somewhere near
Rockcliffe (I don't have the info on hand). The third, this airplane, tried to find North
Bay airport. The radio operator (called "wireless operator" in those days) on board
estimated they were 25 miles away. Unfortunately there was no air traffic control at
the airport--no one that the crew could call, or that could guide them to the airfield.
(ATC didn't begin at North Bay until 1943. It left after the war's end, returning with
construction of the RCAF base in the 1950s.)
Their left engine began failing, so the pilot descended and flew along the Canadian
National Railway tracks, just above the telegraph poles beside the tracks, hoping to
make it to the city. It quickly became evident that they weren't going to make it. The
pilot circled their Bolingbroke over a field at George Girard's farm, Chisholm
Township, south of North Bay, dropped unarmed bombs that they were carrying to
lighten the airplane, then set it down in the field. It tore through a fence and a
telephone pole. But no casualties. The wreck was removed the following week, and
the bombs found and recovered shortly afterwards. Information provided by Captain Doug Newman.Creator
Lorne HicksDate(s) of Creation
1942 - 1951
