A couple of Photo Reconnaissance Spitfires....
See that chap in the top right? Here's a very interesting story for you.
The young man was called Campbell McPherson, and his dad, and his uncle, had started a garage in our small Saskatchewan town in the early 1900's. These two men also owned several nearby houses, one of which is now owned by my wife and I.
Although I had heard of Campbell, I had never been sure which of the McPherson houses he had been raised in, but last summer a visitor from Alberta told us that she was related to Campbell, and could confirm that our house had been his home, and that my office/flightsim room had indeed been his bedroom.
How incredible to think that I have flown many thousands of hours in this room, and built several home cockpits here, and that in this very room a century earlier, a young man had been raised who would become a wartime pilot in the RAF.
I also finally learned the fate of Campbell. He had joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as part of the
British
Commonwealth
Air
Training
Plan. He had taken both his Elementary Flying Training, and Service Flying Training in Canada, and had then been shipped off to the UK. He joined No.1 Photo Reconnaissance Unit at RAF Benson, becoming one of the small cadre of pilots who flew unarmed blue or pink Spitfires over key targets in Europe. With no guns or even wing men, speed was their only protection.
On June 3rd, 1942, Campbell took off from Benson in Spitfire R7073 and headed out across the English Channel. But he never returned, being listed as missing/presumed dead and killed in action. Many years later his family would learn he had been shot down, but survived the bail-out, only to get caught in a tree, and shot as he was swinging from the branches. Oh the tragedies of war.
It was after realizing this room of mine held such a connection, that I started researching more deeply the BCATP, and decided to write a Flight Sim book about it. The book evolved into a more expansive theme, and is dedicated to Campbell, and also another wartime pilot whom I knew personally when he was in his 70's in Ontario.
With my mind being on Spitfires recently, I flew this two-ship Photo reconnaissance flight today as another tribute to the young man who must have dreamed of flight as much as I have done in this room in which I am now sitting.
I hope that one day humanity outlives the experience of war. Rest in Peace the fallen pilots of all nations.