Seventy years ago Saskatchewan farm boy Alvin “Johnny” Johnston made a life-changing decision to volunteer for the Royal Canadian Air Force as part of Canada's Second World War effort.
Today the 89-year-old Johnston retains vivid and shocking memories of the terrible days and nights when he and his fellow flyers faced the constant threat of death in the battlefield skies over Europe.
“I remember it very well and there was not too much fond about it,” said Johnston, a wireless operator and gunner with the 408 and 431 RCAF Squadrons. “It wasn't a good time, believe me. There was one night, out of 12 planes in the squadron we lost five, and that was 35 guys, friends lost. They weren't there in the morning. It wasn't a good time. It really wasn't.”
Johnston and his war-bride wife Dot live on the family farm northwest of Sundre. The couple has one son and seven daughters.
Johnston was 19 years old when he left his home in Radisson, Sask. in January 1941. He volunteered in Saskatoon and was assigned to training at #2 Wireless School in Calgary, where he trained as a wireless (radio) operator.
He then went to Dafoe, Sask. for bombing and gunnery school.
In January 1942, during one of the most intense periods of the Battle of the Atlantic, Johnston was shipped to England, where he underwent six more months of training.
In August 1942 Johnston and his crewmates flew their first wartime mission, to Düsseldorf, Germany in a Hampden twin-engine bomber. It was the first of 32 missions Johnston was to take part in over the next 22 months.
From the very start, the bombers had to fly through intense anti-aircraft fire from the ground and attack from radar-equipped night fighters.
“We were shot at every time we went over,” he said. “They had the searchlights and the ack-ack guns in every town. We had to go through it to get to the target.
“You could feel it if the shells burst anywhere close to you. It would send out shrapnel anywhere from finger size to the size of your fist. You could feel the concussion and you could look out and see the shells burst. One night we came home with 32 holes in the plane.”
About halfway through his 32 missions, Johnston and his crewmates were transferred to four-engine Halifax bombers and assigned to the 431 Squadron.
During the missions Johnston would operate the radio and radar as well as one of the turret machine guns. He said there were numerous times when he had to fire his guns at enemy fighters.
He flew missions to many parts of occupied Europe, including to Stuttgart, Nuremburg, Munich, and at least six times to Berlin, which at the time was one of the most heavily defended cities in the world.
Johnston and his crewmates were part of #6 Group Bomber Command, which suffered about 60 per cent casualties during the war, giving it the highest casualty rate of any Canadian wartime service.
He credits a combination of luck and the efforts of a skilled and dedicated flight crew for bringing him through the battles unharmed.
“The thing was once you got over there and made a few trips, then you had experience,” he said. “The crews we were losing were the crews on their first two or three trips who didn't know what they were doing.”
During his service Johnston was promoted from AC 2 to LAC, to Sergeant, to Warrant Officer, to Pilot Officer and ended up as Flying Officer.
In May 1944, Johnston was transferred to Training Command, where he instructed other flyers on search and rescue procedures, and in particular what to do if the plane had to ditch in the North Sea and English Channel.
“It was very, very dangerous to ditch in the water,” he said. “You get a plane that size in the water, how long is it going to stay afloat? Not very long. And that water was cold.”
It was while stationed in northeast England in 1942 that Johnston met Dot Thompson, his wife-to-be, at a dance in Northallerton.
Dot was a telephone operator sworn to secrecy because her work involved the dispatch of casualty lists from the bomber squadrons after each mission.
She recalls many times having to send the casualty lists to headquarters, all the while hoping Johnston's name would not be on the list of missing or killed.
“I would put the call through and if I wanted to I could listen. They would read the names and if he wasn't on the list it was OK for the day,” she said.
“It makes me angry when I read articles about how the flyers went on leave and had their dances and they met the girls. It wasn't all like that. It was grim and terrible.”
The couple was married in Northallerton in 1943, with son Bob arriving in 1944.
With the war in Europe winding down in the spring of 1945, Johnston requested and was given permission to join the Canadian air force units then preparing for the war against Japan.
He was shipped back to Canada and travelled by train all the way to the RCAF airbase at Patricia Bay on Vancouver Island. The war against Japan ended before the Canadians got into further action.
Several months after Johnny was shipped back to Canada, Dot and baby Bob boarded a transport ship bound for Canada. She recalls the trip over as very harrowing and rough.
The Johnstons reunited in Saskatchewan before making their way in 1946 to their new ranch home north of McDougal Flats, where they live to this day.
Johnston has been a member of the Royal Canadian Legion Sundre Branch #223 for the past 60 years.
Incidentally, Johnston's 408 Squadron is still active and based in Edmonton. Members of the squadron flew helicopters during the recent Afghanistan mission, something Johnston says makes him very proud.
And that's certainly fitting, since the motto of Johnston's 408 Squadron is “For Freedom”.
