April 15, 1944 – Bognor Regis, England
You know how annoying it is when you buy a new vehicle or an appliance, and you must spend a few minutes reading the manual before you use it? All you want to do is drive it, or make coffee, but there are a few things you need to know before you do. It is an irritating process, but necessary. This post is like that.
Bear and I are on our way to Europe to follow her stepfather’s path during WWII. It is going to be an exciting and dangerous adventure, and we hope you will ride along with us, but first I need to give you some background. By the time you finish reading Albert’s Operating Manual below, we will be in England and the battle will begin.
Albert Allsop enlisted in the Air Force in September of 1942. He was posted to the Ogden Shops in Calgary for six months, then sent overseas.
Al landed in Scotland on April 15, 1943, and was immediately transferred to Bognor Regis, on the south coast of England. When he arrived on the coast, Al asked another soldier if they had experienced any enemy bombing in the area. He was told; “No, all the bombing raids are happening in and around London”. Apparently, nobody mentioned this to Hitler – two hours later Al and his troupe were diving for cover as bombs exploded around them.
Al told me from that day forward; he heard shelling and gunfire every day of the war. When the guns finally stopped in May of 1945, Al said that the silence was surreal.
Excerpt from Albert Allsop’s Eulogy – December 2004
Conversations I had with Albert Allsop about his wartime experiences weren’t in the form of interviews. They were sporadic discussions, conducted piecemeal over several years. I was unfamiliar with most of the places and wartime events Albert mentioned, so it was difficult to delineate his stories and form a chronology. In later years, Albert’s cognition was failing, which added yet another obstacle to compiling a complete narrative.
Albert’s wartime photographs often jogged his memory and helped us pull the story together.
Albert (right) and a crew mate servicing a Spitfire in 1944.
To supplement Al’s stories, I studied WWII history and troop movement charts for western Europe. That data, combined with Al’s narratives, revealed a story worth sharing.
Albert Allsop, May 1945 – A Canadian hero.
While I was looking for historical wartime information, I stumbled upon two soldiers in Al’s unit.
Bill Balmer was in the same 414 squadron as Al; he was also a Leading Aircraftman. Balmer was from Grande Prairie, not far from where Al was born, so the two soldiers surely knew one another.
Balmer’s son posted an article which provided detail of 414 squadron’s movements through Europe; it delivered insight into the workings of an aerial reconnaissance unit and added perspective to Al’s story.
Another soldier in Al’s division, Lloyd (Ike) Robertson, also a Leading Aircraftman, gave an interview to The Memory Project. In that interview, Robertson expanded upon events that Al had mentioned to me. I overlayed Bill Balmer and Ike Robertson’s information with Albert’s narrative to create a clearer picture. Some of the experiences attributed to Albert that you will read about in coming posts is an amalgam of these third-party testimonials.
The “whole crew” of 39th Reconnaissance Wing, including Albert Allsop, Bill Balmer and Lloyd Robertson. The photo is too grainy to identify the individuals, but they are there.
To fully appreciate Al’s wartime experience, it is necessary to understand aerial reconnaissance.
The 39th Reconnaissance Wing was a Royal Canadian Airforce division under the command of the British RAF. The 39th was formed in September 1942 and operated from a command post at Leatherhead, Surrey, in southern England. Al served in “39 RECCE” throughout the war.
A reconnaissance unit’s purpose was to gather photographic intelligence in support of allied ground operations. Super-fast, single-seat aircraft, mostly Spitfires and Mustangs, would fly sorties behind enemy lines. Pilots would photograph troop movements, and identify bridges, railroads and other industrial targets. Film would be rushed back to base, developed, and in the hands of allied strategists within hours.
Aerial reconnaissance was essential to the Allies in locating, and thereafter destroying, enemy targets. The 39th flew as many as 80 recon sorties every day of the war.
Camera and film needed to be replaced after every flight.
Albert’s duties involved maintenance of recon aircraft. He repaired planes that returned damaged and got them back in the sky for their next mission. Al also managed and transported aviation fuel, maintained runways, and assisted with camp mobilization each time the 39th advanced.
On a particular day in 1944, Al was asked to help a pilot navigate around potholes on a shelled-out taxiway. He positioned himself on the wing of a nose-high Spitfire and guided the pilot with hand gestures.
Al hopped off before the plane went to France.
Al’s crew mate, Bill Balmer was tasked with running exposed film from returning aircraft to a photo developing facility. Once photographs were set, Bill would transport them to Headquarters for analysis.
Transporting film was a high-risk endeavour. Speed was of the essence, so Bill kept the throttle of his Harley Davidson cracked wide open, day and night, to make the urgent deliveries.
The enemy occasionally stretched piano wire across roadways, at neck height. Bill kept his head throughout the war, others didn’t.
After D-Day (June 6, 1944), the 39th mobilized on the European continent. They continued to fly reconnaissance missions over enemy territory assisting ground troops advancing through France, Belgium, Holland, and deep into Germany.
Men like Bill Balmer, Ike Robertson, and Albert Allsop were integral to Allied success during WWII.
Albert Allsop, centre.
Now that you have read the manual…..
The harrowing stories Al told me about the events of D-Day, crossing the English Channel, landing in Normandy, trekking through war-torn Europe, and engaging the enemy in the heart of Germany will be the subject of blog posts over the next few days. I hope that you will join Bear and I as we ride along with Albert Allsop and the 39th Reconnaissance Wing through Europe in 1944-45.
Every day the 39th Reconnaissance Wing operated; they lived up to their motto: TOTIV VIRIBUS…
… With All Our Might!
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Lorraine Charbonneau
I would so appreciate a PDF version of Uncle Albert’s stories!
Also I would be pleased to receive a copy of your Remembrance Day presentation ! My 80th birthday was on October 12 – and this Remembrance Day is the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2 !
The world has changed in those 80 years. I grew up on the Rigby farm in Alberta, just a short drive away from the Allsop farm where Albert and my mother and their siblings lived!
Lorraine Charbonneau
Albert Allsop was my uncle. I am the second oldest daughter of Albert’s sister, Annis Evelyn Allsop who was the wife of Justyn Rigby. Just today I have been reading through these articles and am touched by the clear and sobering events they contain.
I would very much like to see the series in proper order, telling of Albert’s wartime experiences. How can I get them so I can compile them, print them, and give them to my own three children, now adults?
Russ Paton
Hello Lorraine. I am so glad you found your way to my site and your uncle’s stories.
The articles on the website are in reverse chronological order. They start on September 28th and run daily from there.
I would be happy to create a PDF version that you can share with your family. Please send your contact information to me by e-mail russ.paton@icloud.com and I will work on it.
I am giving a Remembrance Day presentation in my home town of Arcola,SK this week, using Al’s story as the base. I believe that the presentation will be recorded. If you are interested I could get a copy to you.
Happy Trails.