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Butterfly Bombs and Strafing

Heroes Remember

Butterfly Bombs and Strafing

Transcript
At El Alamein, what they would do they'd, first of all they had the commando and the commando and the parachute troops in the front lines and we were expecting them to parachute these paratroopers over and drop them on our airfields. We had, we carried our pistols all the time. That was a scare and the other scare, they would send one plane over and they would drone over top of our airfield and it would go for three quarters of an hour, an hour and everyone was wide awake and they'd drop what we called butterfly bombs. They were large canisters and they'd open up and these little five pound bombs would come out and they had little fans on them which would scream when they came down so it's a terrifying experience because you had no idea where these little bombs might drop. So that was guaranteed to keep you awake for quite a few hours in the night. I remember one time this fellow, this German was flying above us. I got a little windy, they call it, and I thought, well, I'll get into the trench and I started off and this voice behind me, “Oh, get back into bed.” I thought, okay, so I got back into bed. By gosh, I was the last one out of the tent when this bomber started to dive. They beat me by a country mile. But these are some of the experiences we've had. We were strafed quite often. That's a terrifying experience to be strafed. I was strafed once when I was strapped into the air plane, I couldn't get out, couldn't get in, and looking at that plane coming at you is, you know, you think it's pointed right at you.
Description

Mr. Wilson describes how the Germans harassed their airfield by dropping butterfly bombs and occasionally strafing the landing strip, once while he sat helplessly in his cockpit.

Gordon Wilson

Gordon Wilson was born on December 5, 1917 in Limerick, Saskatchewan. The Royal Canadian Air Force was no longer accepting recruits when he enlisted so he joined the Royal Regina Rifles. Six months later, Mr. Wilson joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at Brandon, Manitoba. His first wartime deployment saw him serving in North Africa near El Alamein, where he initially flew Hurricanes in a Royal Air Force squadron. He later piloted Spitfire 9’s in Sicily, Italy and the Middle East. After the war, Mr. Wilson completed a university degree and became a museum curator.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
2:23
Person Interviewed:
Gordon Wilson
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Battle/Campaign:
El Alamein
Branch:
Air Force
Rank:
Flying Officer
Occupation:
Pilot

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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