Group hopes to
retrieve Halifax, honor U.S. vets who served in RCAF
By Barbara A. Schmitz
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Tom Withers.
Photo courtesy Halifax 57 Rescue |
Sixty-four years ago
Thursday, American Tom Withers was shot down over Germany and killed
while serving as an air gunner with the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Karl Kjarsgaard, as well
as fellow directors of Halifax 57 Rescue, wants to make sure Withers and
the 762 other Americans killed while serving with the RCAF aren’t
forgotten.
The group hopes to
recover a Canadian Halifax bomber LW170 from the waters west of Ireland
as part of a tribute to those men. Already, their names, as well as
others killed during World War II, are engraved in a memorial at the
Nanton Lancaster Air Museum in Nanton, Alberta.
"Canadian squads did
39,000 total missions, and 28,000 of them were done on the
Halifax," Kjarsgaard said.
Although there are two
remaining Halifax aircraft of the 6,100 built, not one combat RCAF
Halifax is known to exist from the 1,230 used.
Except one, that is. In
August 1945 while on weather patrol, the aging bomber sprang a fuel leak
and, while trying to return to base, was forced to ditch off the
Hebrides Islands west of Ireland. The plane floated for seven hours
before sinking, and its crew was rescued from its dinghy nearby.
Since the plane floated
for hours, Kjarsgaard and his group are optimistic the Halifax is
intact.
"We have the
technology and the tools to retrieve it, but we still need the
funding."
Kjarsgaard and the team
from Halifax 57 Rescue—the 57 comes from the fact that all Halifax
parts begin with the number 57—spent the last year canvassing and
promoting the project and are looking for a corporate sponsor as well as
American support. The plane also has an American angle in that its
flight lieutenant was Mel Compton, of Richmond, Virginia.
Kjarsgaard estimates it
will cost $1 million to retrieve the bomber, but they are hopeful they
can start the first step—sonar location and inspection—next summer.
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Halifax bomber
LW170. Photo courtesy Halifax 57 Rescue |
They feel the project is
important to educate Americans and Canadians about what happened. More
than 8,000 U.S. citizens helped in the fight before America formally
entered the war. The stories of those who died, however, make a part of
history come alive.
And Tom Withers’
sister, Flora Withers Ballard, is allowing that to happen. She has sent
Halifax 57 Rescue original photos and letters from Tom, such as this one
written to his mother and father on January 10, 1941:
"And there is no
question of serving Canada to the neglect of my mother country. He who
serves Great Britain or any of its Dominions also serves the U.S. and
vice versa. Our differences are in arbitrary boundary lines only."
Withers and his crew are
buried together in the Allied Kiel War Cemetery, Germany.
When recovered, the
Halifax will be placed in the Nanton museum.
During EAA AirVenture
Oshkosh, Halifax 57 Rescue can be found behind the Lancaster bomber on
AeroShell Square. In addition, you can view a short video put to a song
about Withers and the war effort, titled "American Patriots—Canadian
Warriors" by James Blondeau.
For more information on
Halifax 57 Rescue, go to www.57RescueCanada.com.
To hear the song, go to www.DunrobinCastle.com.
