Article from Esprit de Corps Magazine regarding the attempted recovery of the Crew by Anne Gafiuk
Ancestry.ca – Service File of War Dead 1939-47
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Find-A-Grave.com
Saanichton, British Columbia
Avro Anson
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
The Museum's Anson Mk. V was built by MacDonald Brothers in Winnipeg in 1944. It flew with No. 7 Photographic Wing and No. 414 Squadron in Ottawa on photo survey work until the late 1940s. In 1956, it was purchased by INCO and used for mineral surveying until 1980, when it was donated to the Museum. The exterior is painted in the yellow colour common to all BCATP trainers and is in its same wartime RCAF markings.
The Avro Anson was known by a number of nicknames including "Faithful Annie" or "Flying Greenhouse". It was the first aircraft to be flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force to have a retractable undercarriage, which was a comparative novelty in 1936. In 1940, a Canadian government owned company, Federal Aircraft Limited, was created in Montreal to manufacture the Anson for Canadian use. Nearly 3,000 Anson aircraft were produced and, in the early days of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), the Anson was the standard trainer for many pilots, observers (navigators), wireless operators and bomb aimers. More than 20,000 aircrew received training on the Anson. In Canadian service, the aircraft was substantially re-designed with the substitution of North American engines and many other airframe and equipment changes. Harold Skaarup web pages
Avro Anson HistoryCASPIR Aircraft Groups:
RCAF On Strength (4404), RCAF 400 Squadron (6), Canadian Aircraft Losses (257)Anson Mk. I N9818
Assigned to Western Air Command on 3 September 1941, for use by No. 32 Operational Training Unit at RCAF Station Patricia Bay, BC. Destroyed when it struck a mountain peak north-west of Yale, BC late in the afternoon on 21 September 1941. All 3 occupants killed, pilot Pilot Officer L.W. Brooks, Sgt. L.P. Bretland and D.B. Hartley (on leave from McLeod, Alberta). Aircraft was ferrying to Western Air Command when it crashed. Crash location also reported as 4.5 miles south-west of Yale?
1941-06-25 Taken on Strength Aircraft Repair 2019-08-20
1941-September-21 Accident: 32 Operational Training Unit Loc: Yale British Columbia Names: Britland | Brooks | Wortley
1942-02-21 Struck off Strength 2019-08-20
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