Description
Allen Maxwell Spear
Mr. Spear lived in Sussex, New Brunswick, before attending Business College in Saint John - he worked in Bathurst, New Brunswick, for a number of years before joining up. Mr. Spear had not enjoyed his Army camp experience in high school and was attracted to joining the Air Force, particularly as a fighter pilot, because of the recognition the Air Force was receiving in the Battle of Britain. He joined as soon as the Air Force lowered the education requirements to high school which allowed him to qualify. After much basic and initial flight training, Mr. Spear was excited to begin Spitfire training in England in fall 1941. In early 1942, he was stationed to North Africa. The camp locations changed often as the RAF and German Air Forces leapfrogged back and forth across the desert. A few months later (July 1, 1942), his engine gave out during a mission. He landed his plane behind German lines, was captured as a POW, and was shipped to Sulmona, Italy for internment. In September 1943, when the Italians capitulated, the POWs at the Sulmona camp escaped. Mr. Spear, along with two other Canadian POWs managed to escape by travelling along the mountains, avoiding the valleys where they were more likely to run into Germans, until they met up with other Canadian troops in November 1943. After being shipped back to England, Mr. Spear was returned to Canada to serve as a Staff Pilot at a Bombing and Gunnery School in Mountainview, Ontario. A post he held until the end of the War, at which time he was discharged.
Transcript
Interviewer: Why did they send you back to Canada Mr. Spear, as opposed to putting you back on active service?
Well, first of all it was supposed to be I guess, a months rest, although I had been resting for about a year I figured, but anyway. After I got home, I was told that I wasn't going to go back over seas, something about, if you happened to be taken prisoner again, that you could be shot as a spy. And one of my friends got out of prison camp when I did, and he didn't come back home for some how or other he got, he was an officer, and he had some connections with the RCAF headquarters in London, and he got himself a job there, and then eventually he got back flying again and he flew over Europe, over France, under a different name and number and he was shot down a second time and he escaped a second time through, this time, through staying. So they must have thought there was something to this threat because he was, he flew under a different name anyway. So that's why, maybe that's not why I was sent home, that's why I stayed home once I got there.