The Pleasures and Dangers of Scavenging and Using German Equipment

Heroes Remember

The Pleasures and Dangers of Scavenging and Using German Equipment

Transcript

Interviewer: In that retreat by the German forces, were there a lot of vehicles left because of lack of gasoline? Oh yeah, vehicles and air planes. Air planes, brand-new air planes on the field. Sometimes they would wreck most as they could but some were left complete. We, all of us picked up a 109 or two. We had a Messerschmitt on our squadron. We got a Heinkel that would fly back to Cairo and bring back the goodies. This Heinkel had a hard time getting checked out because there's only single engine pilots and we had to look around the desert. We found a... an American group had a pilot who was an instructor on twin engines, so he checked out my friend, Aussie friend. And then we had this...and he checked out myself and some other fellows. And the Heinkel used to go back every two weeks or so to Cairo and just fill up with goods, you know. We'd get fresh fruit even and vegetables, plus a whole bunch of beer. Interviewer: What did you think of the German equipment? Excellent. Excellent equipment. You know, that Heinkel would come back and he'd have our radio frequencies and they'd tell where they were. And it had their British markings on it, but there's still a fear that somebody might, you know. And we were stationed at this place south of Benghazi, Al Uqaylah was the name of it. Just as you turn, the bottom. And the Heinkel was coming in just before Christmas with all the Christmas stuff on it and the weather was bad. A JU-8 had gone over the field and two of them had come over and one had been shot down by the ack-ack and it had lit near by. Just about this time, this Heinkel arrives see. Well, they scrambled the squadron, and it was the Aussie squadron. My friend, the Aussie, is flying this air plane. He's tour expired now. He's finished his tour but he's flying the Heinkel. And he hears the whole three squadron, the Aussies take off and they're flying around and he hears them on the RT “There's the bastard over there.” see. He recognizes Aussies speaking. And they're throwing out whatever they can and flares are going off, waggling his wings. He sees the four Kittyhawks turn and come right in on him and you know, it's goodbye. The leader, of course, saw our air plane broke off. But it could have been curtains for poor old Cundy (sp).

Description

After the Battle of El Alamein, the Axis forces abandoned a plethora of vehicles and equipment to which the Allies helped themselves, though not without some risk...

James Francis Edwards

Mr. Edwards was born on a farm near Lockwood, Saskatchewan on June 5th 1921. His father, a First World War Veteran, kept horses until the depression forced him to move the family to Battleford where he became an insurance salesman. His mother had been a nurse during the First World War. In June 1940, Mr. Edwards enlisted in the Air Force. He was sent to the Brandon, Manitoba to do his Initial Training, then to Edmonton, Alberta for Flying School. After completing Flying School, Mr. Edwards was sent to overseas. He was assigned to 55 Operational Training Unit in Osworth, England where he flew Hurricanes. From there he was posted to Africa to take part in the Desert Campaign. Among many battles and operations, he took part in the El Alamein Battle (Egypt) and the Tunisian Campaign. In Egypt, he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. After a period in Cairo running a gunnery school, he was called back to combat in Italy. There he fought in the Battle of Ortona and Anzio and he was given his own squadron, the RAF 274. He was shot down on his first flight as squadron commander. Surviving, he and his crew were sent back to England to take part in D-Day. He would also fight in Holland and Germany. In total, Mr. Edwards served two tours of duty, flying over 360 missions. He had more than 19 confirmed kills. After the war was over he returned to Canada and continued service with the air force retiring as a wing commander.

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