BENNER, F/O Keith Johnstone (J22565) - Distinguished Flying Cross - No.44 Squadron - Awarded effective 6 November 1943 as per London Gazette dated 12 November 1943 and AFRO 358/44 dated 18 February 1944. Born 26 June 1906 in South River, Ontario. Home in Cobalt, Ontario; enlisted North Bay, 15 August 1941 and posted to No.2 Manning Depot. To No.5 Personnel Holding Unit, 10 October 1941. To No.2 ITS, 23 November 1941; graduated and promoted LAC, 17 January 1942 when posted to No.3 AOS; to No.8 BGS, 25 April 1942; graduated 6 June 1942 when posted to No.1 ANS; graduated and commissioned 20 July 1942. To “Y” Depot, 21 July 1942; to RAF overseas, 5 August 1942. Medal presented 11 August 1944. Repatriated 18 November 1944. To No.1 Training Command, 7 January 1945. To Release Centre, 18 February 1945. Retired 12 April 1945. Photo PL-24052 shows him. See also PL-32531 (ex UK-13803 dated 23 August 1944). Flying Officer Benner has completed a number of sorties as a navigator. The majority of these have been operations against the Ruhr targets and he also went to Berlin and Peenemunde. On one occasion while attacking Cologne the aircraft in which he was flying was turned on its back by a burst of anti-aircraft fire and fell for fourteen thousand feet before control was regained. Coolly, Flying Officer Benner not only gave his pilot valuable assistance at an extremely difficult moment, but he also heartened the remainder of the crew. His work on the ground as well as in the air has always been most praiseworthy.

LAIRD, F/L George Johnstone (J4896) - Distinguished Flying Cross - No.427 Squadron - Award effective 9 November 1943 as per London Gazette dated 9 November 1943 and AFRO 358/44 dated 18 February 1944. Born in Winnipeg, 14 August 1914; home in Toronto; enlisted there 20 August 1940. To No.3 Training Command, 31 August 1944. To No.1 ITS, 12 October 1940; graduated and promoted LAC, 16 November 1940 when posted to No.9 EFTS; graduated 4 January 1941 and posted that date to No.5 SFTS; graduated and commissioned 19 April 1941. To No.5 SFTS, 17 June 1941. Promoted Flight Lieutenant, 20 March 1942. To “Y” Depot, 28 December 1942. To RAF overseas, 2 February 1943. Promoted Squadron Leader, 9 November 1943. Killed in action, 30/31 March 1944 (Halifax LV923 of No.427 Squadron); buried in Belgium. Cited with Sergeant William H. Cardy (RCAF), awarded CGM (Flying). Incident occurred on the night of 3 October 1943. Also mentioned in Martin Middlebrook, The Nuremburg Raid, pp.235 and 280. Public Relations release in October 1943 says that his rear gunner (P/O Jack Findlay, Toronto) and English wireless operator were killed in the Kassel incident when aircraft was half-way to target; night fighter raked Halifax from below. Aircraft caught fire; Laird did steep turn and lost 4,000 feet but fire went out. Intercom knocked out and he learned by shouted reports that two were dead. Bomb aimer (Sergeant Joe Corbally, Toronto) unable to jettison bombs but fighter had shot away a cable that held 2,000-pound "cookie" and during violent evasive action it fell off. Corbally checked for damage and applied tourniquet to Cardy. Mid-upper gunner (P/O James Moffat) found nine German bullets in airplane, one of which passed between his own guns. While fire lasted in bomb bay the mid-upper gunner could not see for flame and smoke but continued to direct evasive action. Navigator (Sergeant George Lorimer, Vancouver) laid down direct course for home and kept lookout in nose. Struggled home and advised by control tower to bale out. Cardy had been badly wounded (right arm and eye) and had been losing consciousness; Laird refused to commit him to a parachute and got permission to land. With hydraulics shot away and unable to lock down undercarriage, Cardy regained consciousness enough to direct axe and back-saw work that finally got the wheels down. After touch-down the crew crawled clear just as incendiaries began to burn. RCAF photo PL-22363 (ex UK-5964 dated 11 November 1943) shows (left to right): Sergeant J.C. Corbally (bomb aimer, Toronto), S/L George Laird (captain, Toronto), P/O J. Moffat (mid-upper gunner, Castledon, Ontario), and Sergeant G.A. Lorimer (navigator, Vancouver). // Flight Lieutenant Laird and Sergeant Cardy were pilot and flight engineer respectively of an aircraft detailed to attack Kassel one night in October 1943. During the operation the bomber was hit by a hail of bullets from an enemy fighter. Nevertheless, Flight Lieutenant Laird coolly and skilfully outmaneuvered the enemy aircraft and set course for this country. Two of his crew had been killed, however, and Sergeant Cardy was wounded in the arm and in the eye. In spite of intense suffering, this gallant airman refused to leave his post and executed his normal duties until he finally fainted through loss of blood. Later, when he again recovered consciousness, he attempted to do as much as he could to assist his captain in the homeward flight. By a superb effort Flight Lieutenant Laird succeeded in reaching base where he effected a safe landing in difficult circumstances. This officer displayed outstanding skill, courage and tenacity, while Sergeant Cardy's exemplary conduct and great fortitude were beyond praise. // The website “Lost Bombers” has the following on his last sortie. Halifax LV923, No.427 Squadron (ZL-W), target Nuremberg, 30/31 March 1944. LV923 was one of three No.427 Squadron Halifaxes lost on this operation; the others were LV898 and LW618. Airborne at 2200 hours, 30 March 1944 from Leeming. On the return flight, drifted north of track and collided with a No.622 Squadron Lancaster (ND767), both aircraft crashing near Rochecourt (Luxembourg), 13 km SW of Arlon, Belgium. Crew were S/L G.J.Laird ,DFC RCAF (killed); Flight Sergeant A.J.Stainton, RCAF, (killed); P/O J.Morrison, DFC (died from his injuries 20 April 1944); F/O W.E.P.Soeder, RCAF (killed); P/O J.C.Corbally, RCAF (killed); Flight Sergeant W.P.Clapham (killed); P/O L.H.Smith RCAF (killed); P/O J.Moffat RCAF (evaded). // The survivor (Moffat) reported as follows: “H2S unserviceable on way to target. Target bombed and 10 minutes late. On way back got off track to starboard. Navigator gave turn 60 degrees to port. Course held 15 minutes before collision. Visibility very bad, pilot ordered watch to port for other aircraft. Pilot said, “What the hell, then impact. Rear Gunner (Moffat) saw aircraft going past to starboard rear, slightly below. Aircraft went into spin immediately. Starboard fin and rudder torn off and large hole forward of rear turret on port side of fuselage slightly up. Height 21,000 feet. Rear Gunner got out of turret easily, could not find chute which was caught in broken control wires. Got chute on, trouble with one hook, left hook on harness turned wrong way round, necessitating taking off gloves. Intercom unserviceable. Baled out of hole. Height 4,000 feet. Landed one km west of Batancourt ? Both aircraft landed near Rachcourt. Baled out with helmet and oxygen connection from turret, no trouble with these. Landed hard on back, no injury. One aircraft burnt on ground. French said 14 bodies were found. Hazy, no moon, very dark.”

WINNY, W/C Harry Johnstone, BEM (C1410) - Mention in Despatches - Alliford Bay - Award effective 28 May 1943 as per London Gazette of that date, Canada Gazette dated 2 June 1943, and AFRO 1459/43 dated 30 July 1943. Born in Vancouver, 27 April 1904. Served in British Columbia Light Horse (Militia), 29 July 1921 to 30 March 1924. Enlisted in RCAF at Jerhico Beach (Vancouver), 24 September 1924 (service number 224). Trained as a Fitter Learner. Purchased discharge, 10 July 1926. He may have taken some private flying lesson. Re-enlisted in RCAF, 14 March 1927 and promoted LAC, 15 September 1927. To Camp Borden for pilot training, 12 October 1927. Graduated, promoted Sergeant and awarded wings, 23 February 1928. Posted to Lac du Bonnet, 24 April 1928. Engaged in Civil Government Air Operations with F/L Mawdesley, 1930. Promoted Flight Sergeant, 1 July 1931. Posted to Vancouver, 18 May 1932. Veteran of preventative patrols flown out of Vancouver, 1932-1935. Awarded the BEM, 1 January 1935 (Canada Gazette, 26 January 1935). Purchased discharge, in Vancouver, 2 September 1936. Civil employment with Canadian Airways and Hudson Bay Company. Commissioned at Edmonton, 29 November 1939; on rejoining the RCAF he had 5,800 hours. To No.13 Operational Training Squadron, 13 July 1940; promoted Squadron Leader, 1 February 1942; to No.6 (BR) Squadron, Alliford Bay, 8 March 1942. Appointed Commanding Officer, Alliford Bay, 25 June 1942. Promoted Wing Commander, 1 October 1942. Appointed Commanding Officer, Uclulet, 1 June 1943. To Northwest Air Command, Edmonton, 12 March 1944. To Station Edmonton, 30 December 1944. Appointed Commanding Officer, Watson Lake, 23 January 1945. To AFHQ, 24 March 1945. Left RCAF, 9 August 1945 and returned to flying with Hudson Bay Company. Died in Calgary, 18 December 1960. // Wing Commander Winny commands an isolated station on the Pacific Coast. He is an outstanding pilot, a resourceful commander and an exceptional leader. His diligence, fine judgement and personal example have brought his station to a high state of efficiency. Wing Commander Winny has flown 1,066 operational hours since the outbreak of war. // NOTE: Winny's 1935 BEM was rare in the interwar period and arose from R.B. Bennett inquiring about outstanding achievements in Canadian aviation that might be recognized in the January 1935 Honours List. Major General A.G.L. McNaughton and the Senior Air Officer recommended one civilian (W.R. "Wop" May), one officer (Squadron Leader R.S. Grandy) and one NCO (Winny). The memo singling him out (dated 3 May 1934) described his achievements as follows: // Outstanding flights by personnel of the Royal Canadian Air Force // Flying and Exploratory Work in the Far North // No.224, Flight Sergeant Winny, H.J. // 1. In 1930 Flight Sergeant Winny was appointed as pilot of the second aircraft of the detachment which was organized for the purpose of exploring and photographing some of the main travelled and unknown water and air routes and to inspect RCAF fuel caches laid down in the North West Territories. // 2. The detachment left Ottawa on July 6th and proceeded to Aklavik by Winnipeg and the Mackenzie River system, thence to Great Bear Lake calling at points en route. // From Hunter Bay the detachment proceeded to Coronation Gulf and thence to Point Lake on the Coppermine River, from where the detachment proceeded to Fort Reliance on Great Slave Lake stopping at Fort Rae. On the 23rd of August, the detachment proceeded to Lac la Gras later returning to Reliance from which point photographic operations were undertaken until September 2nd when the detachment proceeded to Chesterfield Inlet, Hudson Bay. On September 8th, the detachment left for Cape Fullerton, Wager Inlet and Repulse Bay returning to Chesterfield Inlet on 12th of September. The detachment then proceeded to Ottawa, calling at Port Churchill and Winnipeg en route. // 3. Three thousand one hundred photographs were taken during the operation, which involved 193 hours flying, and a complete check of RCAF caches was made in the area in which the aircraft operated. // 4. The is detachment was entirely self-contained, and was operating in an unsettled country and over an area for which maps did not exist. The operation was brought to a successful conclusion. // 5. In 1931 Flight Sergeant Winny was again detailed to act as pilot in one of the aircraft of a special detachment which undertook photography and photographic reconnaissance of the unmapped and little known area in the North West Territories situated between the Mackenzie River system and Hudson Bay. The detachment worked as far north as Bathurst Inlet and as far south as Wholdain Lake. // The following was published in Canadian Aviation, March 1939: // KNOW YOUR PILOTS // Harry Winny, OBE [sic] // (Canadian Airways to Hudson’s Bay Company) // Flying skill plus judgement with a liberal sprinkling of good luck have contributed to a reputation based on 15 years’ steady, relatively uneventful piloting of aeroplanes all over the Canadian sky. // Since his first flight as engineer with the Canadian Air Board in 1923, Harry Johnstone Winny has flown more miles in more areas of the Dominion in more varied types of aircraft than most of his cloud-chasing contemporaries. For practically half his life, he has been guiding assorted aeroplanes through storm and sunshine over Pacific and Arctic coasts, along the great watershed of the Mackenzie, across the desperate bleakness of the Barren Lands and over the jagged shores of Hudson Bay. In earlier days, he had nursed underpowered crates into the air and since has flown some of the fastest and smoothest on wings. // Although Pilot Winny has covered more than 550,000 miles of varied terrain and figures, he’s just now getting started. For some, time, he has been flying north of Edmonton to Goldfields and Yellowknife. With spring break-up, he will join the Hudson’s Bay Company’s new Transport Division... which means wings over the Artic again, east and west, serving the company’s great fur trade empire. // At times, his flying life has been relatively uneventful, most of the time in fact, but never dull. On the contrary! Rather like an ever shifting mosaic of interest and colour. For nearly half his years, he has been rubbing shoulders with unusual people in out-of-the-way places… with Eskimos and Indians, prospectors and trappers, seamen, rum-runners, RCMP officers on coastal patrol…. // And sometimes the air has been spiced with excitement… when, for instance, he first hurtled through space with silk on his back in practice parachute jumping with the R.C.A.F…. or “feeling” his way over the confusing white blanket of the Barrens in a winter blizzard with nothing to indicate location or direction… or flying in dirty weather on the Pacific coast. // They say some of the toughest flying conditions in the world occasionally get together for jam sessions up and down the Pacific shore, and Harry has come through more than his share of fog and foul weather. // More than once, along a particularly obnoxious strip of coast, he had to fly under fog skimming close to the ocean swells with a sheer wall of rock to port and a bank of dense fog closing in to starboard. Sometimes this meteorological squeeze-play became so tight that water hurled by swells from China dashed high on the cliffs and rained down on the aeroplane, shaking it from prop to tail. // The naked outline of Winny’s flying history runs about as follows: Born: Vancouver, April 1905; Engineer, RCAF, 1923-1927; Pilot training at Camp Borden, then seaplane training on Pacific coast, 1938; Forestry patrol in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, two years; transferred to Ottawa, No.2 General Purpose Detachment, RCAF, for operations in the Territories; Photographic survey for two years in eastern Arctic; Transferred to Vancouver, 1932, and for three years flew with RCMP Preventive Patrol chasing rum-runners and dope-smugglers; Joined C.A.F., 1935, and flew Vancouver-Victoria, Vancouver-Seattle services until early 1937; Joined Territories Exploration, flying in Yellowknife area until December, 1938; Returned to Canadian Airways with Mackenzie division. In 1935, he was awarded the OBE [sic. BEM] for distinguished work in photographic survey with the RCAF // Harry confesses that an early interest in all types and forms of high-powered locomotion has not decreased and, if he had time, would like to play around with powerful motor boats. He has the athletic build of a middle-weight boxer, but speaks softly, almost apologetically, and seems to have a certain air of dignity associated with “officer and gentleman”. He is outwardly mild and has not been known to lose his temper, but one gets an impression of inward steam. Harry is married and probably would be a home-and-fireside devotee, but won’t be seeing too much of either for some time.

EARL ERNEST EDWARD P/O(WAG) J8101. From Vancouver, British Columbia. Killed in Action Jul 20/42 age 21. #10 Squadron (Rem Acu Tangere). Halifax aircraft #W 1106 failed to return from operations. FSs W.G. Gibson and F.W. Stewart were also killed. Four RAF members of the crew missing believed killed. This crew was on loan to #102 Squadron for this trip. Pilot Officer Wireless Operator Air Gunner Johnstone has no known grave, his name is inscribed on the Runnymede War Memorial, Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey, England.

GEORGE PETERS F/O(P) 0824. From Regina, Saskatchewan. Killed Nov 18/39 age 29. #110 City of Toronto Squadron. F/O Johnstone was killed when Tiger Moth aircraft #279 was in a flying accident at Ottawa, Ontario. Flying Officer Pilot Johnstone is buried in the Regina Cemetery, Regina, Saskatchewan.

RONALD ELLIOTT P/O(BA) J872531/R130242. From Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan. Killed in Action Jan 30/44 age 26. #576 Squadron (Carpe Diem). Lancaster aircraft missing during night operations against Berlin, Germany. Six of the crew, not Canadians, missing believed killed. Pilot Officer Bomb Aimer Johnstone is buried in the Berlin War Cemetery, Charlottenburg, Germany.

THOMAS P/O(BA) J23738. From Toronto, Ontario. Killed Aug 4/43 age 21. #16 Operational Training Unit. Wellington aircraft #BK 205 crashed, two miles from the aerodrome, at Lower Heyford Mill, Oxford. FS D. Redfern and three of the crew, not Canadians, were also killed. Pilot Officer Bomb Aimer Johnstone is buried in the Botley Cemetery, North Hinksey, Berkshire, England.