Pilot officer Donald Allan Elliott was flying high over Cologne, Germany, when everything went white.

Caught in the headlights of an enemy aircraft, his Vickers Wellington bomber was rattled by the pat-pat-pat of artillery fire.

Ever the pragmatist, he barely hesitated before diving into the night sky and pulling the parachute cord, the full moon guiding his way to the enemy waiting for him below.

“Baled out over Germany — landed safely in wheat field. Bruised toes and black eye only damage,” Elliott wrote to his mother soon after being captured on July 8, 1941.

Although he did not know then if he would survive the war, Elliot would live until the age of 96. He died this June of prostate cancer at his farm in Caledon.

Elliott would spend the remainder of the war as a prisoner of Nazi Germany. Writing almost every two weeks to his mother in Swift Current, Sask., he described the homesickness, tedium and uncertainty of life as a PoW.

“Winter has arrived at last — and everything reminds me of home except the barbed wire,” he wrote on Dec. 26, 1941, from a camp in Germany.

By 1943, Elliott would be transferred to Stalag Luft III in Poland, the PoW camp made famous in the movie The Great Escape. At the camp, prisoners — nicknamed kriegies —organized elaborate sporting matches, musical productions and escape attempts to pass the time until the end of the war.

One of the escape attempts involved using a wooden horse to smuggle tools, men and dirt to secret tunnels. Kriegies, including Elliott, would jump over the horse doing gymnastics, in order to distract the German guards from the real work below.

But while he helped others with their plans, he never attempted to escape himself.

In many ways, Elliott’s great escape was when he joined Squadron 99 of the Royal Air Force in 1940. Growing up in Swift Current during the Depression, the studious Elliott had to drop out of university after only a year because he could not afford tuition.

“It was an exciting adventure for a young guy from a small town in the middle of nowhere,” said Peter Elliott, his youngest son.

Although the RAF promised to help him see the world, it was far from a pleasure cruise. Bomber Command suffered some of the highest casualty rates in all the Royal forces — as many as six out of 10 airmen would be killed by the end of the war.

“He had this belief, this inexplicable belief, that he would not be one of those,” Peter Elliott said.

In all likelihood, it was Elliott’s capture by the Germans in 1941 that saved his life. When he was finally liberated by Russian troops on Feb. 18, 1945, Elliott returned home to continue his schooling.

He eventually earned a law degree from the University of Toronto and worked for the Toronto Transit Commission from 1949 until his retirement in 1978. After his retirement, he obtained both a master’s degree and a doctorate.

Although he led an active life post-service, Elliot kept his kriegie connections close. He met his wife, Grace, while buying ice cream at the family dairy of a fellow PoW.

The war gave him many lifetime friends, but it also made him acutely aware of suffering and deprivation. He gave money to the Red Cross throughout his life, in thanks for their help providing him with food and clothing while he was a prisoner.

And after spending years eating mostly spuds, not even French fries could tempt Elliott.

“I never saw him eat a potato,” remarked Gordon Elliott, his oldest son.

Suing the CBC

But when the CBC ran a documentary about Bomber Command, The Valour and the Horror , Elliot vigorously defended his role in the war. He and fellow PoWs felt the film accused bombers of targeting civilians, so they sued the CBC for defamation in the 1990s.

Although they did not win, the program was never aired in Canada again. They also took action against the Canadian War Museum for a similar depiction of Bomber Command. The museum eventually changed the wording of an exhibit.

Decades after the war, Elliott remembered its harsh realities with a characteristic mix of pragmatism and optimism. For him, war wasn’t glorious, but it was sometimes necessary.

“It’s like a lot of bombing raids: they weren’t always completely successful, but in the end, right prevailed,” he told the Ontario Court of Appeals in 1995.

Elliott is survived by his three children, Gordon, Peter and Barbara, and his grandson Alex. Toronto Star, July 12, 2013

The Star

Home
Swift Current, Saskatchewan

Target
Cologne Germany

Crew on Wellington IC T2880

Pilot Officer Elliott, Donald Allan (RCAF)

Prisoner of War
Age: 24

Flight Sergeant Platz, Martin Johann (RCAF)

Prisoner of War
Age: unknown

Vickers Wellington

Source: Harold A Skaarup Web Page
Vickers Wellington B. Mk. III (Serial No. X3763), coded KW-E, No. 425 'Alouette' (B) Squadron, RCAF, late summer of 1942

The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson, a key feature of the aircraft is its geodetic airframe fuselage structure, which was principally designed by Barnes Wallis. Development had been started in response to Air Ministry Specification B.9/32, issued in the middle of 1932, for a bomber for the Royal Air Force. This specification called for a twin-engined day bomber capable of delivering higher performance than any previous design.

The Wellington was used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, performing as one of the principal bombers used by Bomber Command. During 1943, it started to be superseded as a bomber by the larger four-engined "heavies" such as the Avro Lancaster. The Wellington continued to serve throughout the war in other duties, particularly as an anti-submarine aircraft.

It holds the distinction of having been the only British bomber that was produced for the duration of the war, and of having been produced in a greater quantity than any other British-built bomber. The Wellington remained as first-line equipment when the war ended, although it had been increasingly relegated to secondary roles. The Wellington was one of two bombers named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the other being the Vickers Wellesley.

In August 1936, an initial order for 180 Wellington Mk I aircraft, powered by a pair of 1,050 hp (780 kW) Bristol Pegasus radial engines, was received by Vickers; it had been placed so rapidly that the order occurred prior to the first meeting intended to decide the details of the production aircraft. In October 1937, another order for a further 100 Wellington Mk Is, produced by the Gloster Aircraft Company, was issued; it was followed by an order for 100 Wellington Mk II aircraft with Rolls-Royce Merlin X V12 engines. Yet another order was placed for 64 Wellingtons produced by Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. With this flurry of order and production having been assured by the end of 1937, Vickers set about simplifying the manufacturing process of the aircraft and announced a target of building one Wellington per day.

A total of 180 Wellington Mk I aircraft were built; 150 for the RAF and 30 for the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) (which were transferred to the RAF on the outbreak of war and used by 75 Squadron). In October 1938, the Mk I entered service with 9 Squadron. The Wellington was initially outnumbered by the Handley Page Hampden (also ordered by the Ministry to B.9/32) and the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley (to B.34/3 for a 'night' bomber) but outlasted both rival aircraft in service. The Wellington went on to be built in 16 separate variants, in addition to two training conversions after the war. The number of Wellingtons built totalled 11,462 of all versions, a greater quantity produced than any other British bomber. On 13 October 1945, the last Wellington to be produced rolled out. Wikipedia

Wikipedia Vickers Wellington

RCAF - Vickers Wellington

YouTube Vickers Wellington documentary

Harold A Skaarup Web Page

CASPIR Aircraft Groups:

RCAF 400 Squadron (1), Canadian Aircraft Losses (1217), Canadian Ferried (1)

last update: 2021-08-30 20:19:05

Wellington IC T2880