Book Review

It has been a busy start to the year. Between preparing a presentation in absentia for the Society for Historical Archaeology Conference in Boston, preparing an abstract for the Canadian Archaeological Association Conference in May, #stormageddon, and preparing a talk for the Newfoundland and Labrador Historical Society (February 22, 2020, 7:30pm at Hampton Hall, Marine Institute, St. John’s, NL. Free admission, all are welcome) it has been hectic. But, I always take on too many projects.

A black and white image of a crashed aircraft in a bog with a line of trees in the background.
Text reads:
Aviators and Airfields, Aviation Archaeology Work in Newfoundland and Labrador by Lisa M. Daly
Newfoundland and Labrador has seen many events in aviation history, some of which have been historically significant, such as the plane crash that killed Sir Frederick Banting in 1941. Other events involved early aviators trying to set and beat records, or men delivering aircraft and supplies and keeping convoys safe during the Second World War.
For this talk, Lisa Daly looks at recent aviation archaeology conducted in Newfoundland and Labrador. She focuses on the aviation material culture of the province, the reasons for conducting this type of archaeology, and the activities of various communities in recording a protecting sites. Archaeologists in this province have been leading the way in the relatively new field of aviation archaeology.
Thursday, 27 February 202 at 7:30pm
Hampton Hall, Marine Institute, St. John's, NL
Free admission, everyone welcome!
Presented by the Newfoundland and Labrador Historical Society

It isn’t very often that I can easily share a book that I’m reviewing, but this book is available through the Digital Archives Initiative and Memorial University of Newfoundland, so if you would like to read it yourself, or look at all of the pictures, you can find it here.

I received a well-worn copy of Per Ardua…: A Pictorial History of RCAF, Torbay from a Nelson Sherren as part of a collection of papers and books a couple of years ago. This text was part of his research into the Torbay Airport, a manuscript I am still editing in the hopes to fulfil his dream of publication.

This short book was published in 1944 with sponsorship from the station fund for the exclusive use for personnel of RCAF Station Torbay and features the photographs of Jack Speare and his photography staff. The book does not focus on text, but shares a number of photographs of Torbay from early ground breaking to the height of the Second World War, and is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in historical photography as well as aviation history.

Three black and white photos. Top left is a man walking, knee-deep in the snow toward his surveyor's level. Small scrubby trees are visible. Top right is a muddy, possibly frozen terrain and two surveyor's and their level in the distance. Bottom left is a drainage ditch that is being dredged. Machinery is visible in the distance and a couple of boards are in the water in the foreground.
Early surveying and construction at Torbay

Of course, as the text is sponsored by the RCAF and published during the war, it is very positive about the establishment and operation of the airport, and stresses the need for it to be built. That said, it even makes “months of bog-slogging, hacking through heavy underbrush, and squinting through freezing transists and levels” to survey and plan the airport in the winter of 1940/1 sound like an adventure. The construction company, McNamara Construction Co. moved in with 450 workers who worked day and night, concentrating on the runways, to get the base operational. G.M. Cape Co. worked on the buildings once the runways were surfaced.

A snowy scene where cars and trucks have snow up over their tires. Buildings are on the right of the picture, and have snow built up around the doors. In the middle of the picture, snowclearing equipment are working.
Snow in Torbay

Though lighthearted, the book also covers the seriousness of the situation. An anecdote about a nose-hangar collapsing and damaging one of the aircraft was later mocked by Lord Haw Haw, part of German propaganda, mentioned the hangar as being poorly built on his radio show. The book doesn’t say who might have leaked the information, but, with everyone on high alert, a trapper was fired upon, and from then on, trapping was banned from the area.

A aircraft is back on to the photo with its nose in a small hangar. The hangar just covers the nose, leaving the wings outside of the structure.
A hangar like the one refered to by Lord Haw Haw

This isn’t a long book, really just magazine sized, and does feel a lot like the publications that were coming out of Gander, but a little broader as it was covering many years of RCAF Torbay and the publications in Gander were coming out multiple times a year, so would have some historical information now and then, but would mostly focus on the current happenings (much like the sports section in this one). It does show that there were many of the same kinds of activities at Torbay as at Gander, such as picnics and swimming by the late (here Windsor Lake, there Gander Lake), dances (and finally found the source for a photo that shows up in many later publications), bands, a theatre, library, and debates. Torbay did have it much easier compared to Gander, where it was a much shorter trip into St. John’s, whereas on leave, those from Gander would go to Grand Falls, all the way to St. John’s, or in the case of the Americans, Corner Brook to go to the USO. In St. John’s, the publication praises the bacon and eggs, and the chocolate cake with whipped cream at the Blue Puttee (near Rawlin’s Cross). While much of the talk of St. John’s and surrounding areas as that tinge of condescension that many of these publications carry, the excitement of shipments of oranges and coal coming in to the harbour, of the meagre pebbly fields. While I like this line, it does paint Newfoundland as lesser: “We have come to respect the people’s feeling for this strong land that is not easily loved, their sturdy pride, which makes them desire to create their salvation themselves.”

A group of five Newfoundland men talking in a circle, with one looking at the camera. They are wearing long, heavy coats and salt n' pepper caps. The caption from the book reads: "Rugged faces of seafarers."

This publications does treat the WDs as invaders to the male space of the servicemen. This is also common in these publications, but the RCAF ones seem to like to have their glamour shots of women. The book actually bemoans the WDs arriving at Torbay because the servicemen had to stop swimming in the nude at Windsor Lake (also the city’s water supply). The section devoted to the WDs makes it sound like their only role is planning and providing entertainment, and their goal is marriage, ignoring the clerical work, and even the nursing, that women did at RCAF Torbay. Many classes were offered, and while the pictures show both men and women attending a typing class, it seems implied that most classes were for the men, except cooking and sewing which is specifically for the WDs. That said, one woman does get special mention, LAW Galliot, as she taught the French classes, something important as many servicemen and women from Quebec served in Newfoundland and Labrador because it was not considered to be overseas.

Two photos. Top right is an unnamed outport. In the right foreground is a dock with a small fishing boat. In the back centre is a white float plane with two people standing on the wings and a dory trailing behind it. The photo on the left is of two servicemen on either side of a female nurse who is folding a baby. They are sitting in a dory with a woman who is lying down.
An unnamed outport and a first air party helping a local woman and her child.

Of course, this, like other publications that were likely to be sent home to family or kept as keepsakes, focus on the positive. There is a brief mention of the Knights of Columbus fire, something which would have been devastating to RCAF Torbay, and of missing aircraft, but the focus very much on the light and happy day-to-day activity of the airbase: the dances, the church services, the visiting celebrities, trips around the Avalon. Such publications give so much insight into the down times while incident reports and logs discuss the actual work of the base. Sports were a big part of the social life, usually with friendly competition between the RCAF and the RCN, with the rare game against the US Army (the Americans won in basketball). The women didn’t get as many sports competitions, as the softball schedule was almost completely rained out!

Three photos. Top left are two women sitting next to a rocky stream. Top right are a group of men and women sitting and lying on the edge of a forest. Bottom are four people next to a waterfall, backed by a rugged cliff. Two women are standing at the base of the waterfall while a man is helping a third woman climb a small pile of rocks.
Exploring the area

As someone who loves going to the library (when I visited Florida a few years ago, I just wandered the library close to where I was staying just to explore it), it was lovely to see that apparently the library at Torbay had the highest circulation of any library in Eastern Air Command! The library averaged about 50 books circulated a day!

Top photo: The library. A wall lined with shelves of books in the background. On man sitting at a desk covered in books is having a book to another man standing on the other side. Bottom photo: A woman is walking between rows of desks as servicemen and women are sitting, working at large black typewriters.
The library and the typing class

The best parts of this book, from a historical perspective, are the photos of early Torbay and talk of the construction of the airbase, as well as the group photos and roll call pages. The group photos have everyone listed, which is a wonderful resource for finding people, and perhaps finding pictures of family members who served.

I have only shared a couple of pictures, so I strongly recommend finding Per Ardua… at the DAI and looking through the wonderful pictures of the construction of, and life at, RCAF Torbay.

A large splash in the ocean, possibly from a depth charge. Next to the image reads: " In peace there is nothing so becomes a man, As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Them imitate the action of a tiger."
Throughout the sports and leisure, it is remembered that RCAF Torbay was built for war.
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Strangely, I had not come across this book on my own. I am sure it would have caught my eye with a cover full of fairly iconic Gander photos. Instead, it was introduced to me by a German documentary group who were recently in Gander filming about the town. I did get to be involved, and was interviewed in the pilot’s lounge, which meant I got to walk through the international terminal for the first time! Quite exciting.

The inside of the Gander International Airport Terminal. Visible is the statue "Birds of Welcome". On the back wall is the word Canada and the Newfoundland flag, the Canadian flag, and the Union Jack.
“Birds of Welcome” inside the International Terminal. Photo by Daly 2019.

Voices in the Wind: A History of Gander, Newfoundland is a lovely read about the history of Gander told very much through the story of aviation. The forward, written by Reg Wright, president and CEO of the Gander International Airport Authority Inc. at the time of publication (2014) is the most poetic look at Gander I have ever read. The love for the town and for aviation is so clear in the forward, and offers a wonderful romanticism about the town. This was the part that was recommended for me to read, and I was in awe of the author’s handle on prose. I wish I could write so well.

The cover of the book, Voices in the Wind by Jean Edwards Stacey

The rest of the book gives a thorough history of Gander, with research, newspaper articles, and personal stories, the author lets the people of Gander tell their own story. There is a lot of information in the book, and sometimes the timeline jumps around a little and there is a little repetition, but overall, it is a detailed history of Gander.

A propellar mounded on a conceret support pillar in the Gander Airport
One of the aviation displays in the Gander Airport. Photo by Daly 2019.

While I have spent a fair bit of time researching the Second World War history of Gander, and have quite a few locally published books on the topic. This is one of the few that spends a good deal of time discussing Gander after the war era. This offered quite a lot of new information, from my perspective; obviously it would be common knowledge for anyone from the area. The look at Gander at the end of the war, as well as with the advent of Confederation was refreshing and gave me a few into Gander that, honestly, would have been helpful when researching the end of the Canadian Side and the building and moving to the newer part of the town.

Gander Airport International Terminal looking at the blue chairs used by passengers and the Art Deco mural, Flight and Its Allegories by Ken Lochhead
Inside the International Lounge looking at Flight and Its Allegories by Ken Lochhead. Photo by Daly 2019.

One of the things I found the most interesting were the stories regarding the Lancaster that killed some residents of Gander in 1946. Frank Tibbo’s account of the incident can be found on the Gander Airport Historical Society page (almost word for word as is in the book) or I discuss it in the context of the Gander Cemetery in Canadians and War Vol. 3. The author allows Tibbo’s story to speak for itself, and tell about the accident that killed four residents who were crossing the runway when the aircraft returned unexpectedly. Tibbo states that the civilians did not know the aircraft was returning because it was landing facing the wind, so they would not hear the airplane behind them, and because it was not using landing lights. Carol Peyton Fitzpatrick also talks about the Lancaster tragedy, but from the perspective of a child who was warned away from playing on the runways. She remembers an abandoned aircraft that was kept in a hanger to itself because it was the one that returned and struck a group of people watching the other aircraft leaving. It is interesting, even though the stories are about 100 pages apart, to see how the Lancaster became a bit of a legend to keep kids safe in Gander.

A piece of the World Trade Centre Towers that were destroyed on 9/11, now on display in the Gander International Airport
A piece of the World Trade Centre given to the people of Gander for their efforts around 9/11

Overall, this is an enjoyable read with a lot of history around Gander and aviation. Sometimes it wanders a little off topic, but always comes back to focus on the community and its history. As is often the case with these books full of memories, I would love more citations so that I could look up some of the great pictures or read a little more into the people and history of the area.

Sources:

Stacey, J.E. 2015. Voices in the Wind: A History of Gander, Newfoundland. DRC Publishing: St. John’s.
A brown escalator along a bugundy wall featuring four clocks showing the time in London, Montreal and New York, Moscow, and Gander.
Inside the Gander Airport International Terminal. Photo by Daly 2014.
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