No. 429 (Bison) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force

No. 429 (Bison) Squadron was formed at East Moor in Yorkshire on 7 November 1942 flying Vickers Wellington Mk IIIs as part of No. 6 Group, operating by night over Europe. In August 1943 429 Squadron moved to Leeming and re-equipped with Handley Page Halifax Mk I these were replaced in March 1944, with the more powerful Halifax Mk III. In March 1945 No. 429 re-equipped with Avro Lancaster Mk Is and Mk IIIs, and used these briefly on operations before the war in Europe ended. They then undertook POW repatriation duties until the squadron disbanded at Leeming on 31 May 1946.
Airfields at which No. 429 Squadron were based:

East Moor.
Leeming.
Skipton on Swale. (Detachment)

3rd December 1942 Aircraft arrive

21st Jan 1943 Ops

21st Jan 1943 Gardening

26th Jan 1943 Ops

27th Jan 1943 429 Squadron Wellington lost

29th Dec 1943 Aircraft Lost

24th Mar 1944 Berlin Targeted

30th Mar 1944 Aircraft Lost

6th Jun 1944 Coastal Defences

6th Jun 1944 Supply Lines

5th Jan 1945 Night Ops

13th Jan 1945 429 Squadron Halifax lost

2nd Feb 1945 Halifax Lost

13th Feb 1945 Night Ops

17th Feb 1945 Halifax Lost

20th Feb 1945 Halifax Lost

21st Feb 1945 Night Ops

23rd Feb 1945 Night Ops

27th Feb 1945 Night Ops

2nd Mar 1945 Night Ops

3rd Mar 1945 Night Ops

25th Mar 1945 Night Ops

8th Apr 1945 Night Ops

13th Apr 1945 Night Ops

18th Apr 1945 Night Ops

22nd Apr 1945 Night Ops

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Those known to have served with
No. 429 (Bison) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force
during the Second World War 1939-1945.

Austin Herbert Ingle. Flt.Sgt. (d.23rd April 1944)
Bole Jimmy. F/Sgt
Bostwick Stanley Edward. Flt.Sgt. (d.15th Feb 1945)
Carr Johnnie.
Conroy Robert Fitzgerald . F/O. (d.24th Mar 1944)
Davidson Robert Edward. LAC. (d.24th Feb 1942)
Dykes G. Sgt (d.9th Oct 1940)
Findlater Harold Alfred.
Findlater Harold A..
Freer Arthur James. F/O
Gardiner Allan Thomas. WO/2 (d.26th November 1943)
Gardiner George W.. F/Lt.
Garland Victor Alan. Fl/Sgt.
Hallam George Theodore. Flt.Sgt. (d.23rd October 1944)
Hannan Gordon Alexander. Sgt.
Hawn DFC Elmer Joseph. Flt.Lt.
Horner Jack.
Jory William Edward. FO (d.15th Oct 1944)
Kenyon Stewart Steele. LAC.
Lamb Edward Walter. LAC.
MacEachern John Hugh. Flt.Sgt.
McLean DFC. Malcolm Neil. P/O.
McLean DFC. Malcolm Neil. P/O.
Milne Wesley.
Morris Francis Kempton. Sgt. (d.20th Nov 1943)
Norton Walther Robert.
Rainford Keith Willard. FO (d.15th Feb 1945)
Saffran Ralph Alexander. W/O.
Schurman Don.
Thompson Dalton Lee. S/Sgt.
Wade. George . P/O
Williams Doug. P/O.

The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List

Records of No. 429 (Bison) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force from other sources.

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F/Lt. George W. Gardiner 429 Squadron

My dad, George Gardiner was on his 23 mission on July 18th 1944 when his plane was hit from falling bombs from above Aircraft Halifax LW127. Went down 3 killed 3 POW's and 1 made it back to friendly lines. Phil Brunet was in the same camp and bunk house.

Greg Gardiner

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Sgt. Francis Kempton Morris No. 429 Squadron (d.20th Nov 1943)

Page 196 of the 1943 Book of Remembrance, also letters tell the story of Sheenboro airman’s death, by Jonathan Crowe:
Francis Kempton Morris's family first heard the news by telegram. Kemp, a native of Sheenboro, was a gunnery sergeant in the Royal Canadian Air Force. On the night of 18th of November 1943, his plane went on a bombing raid over Mannheim, Germany. The plane never returned. He had just turned 21 years old on the 15th. “They sent word, we got a telegram at the end of November that he was presumed missing,” says Grace Bryson, Kemp's younger sister. She remembers feeling “just shock” when her family heard the news. “We never thought that this would happen,” she said.
Kemp and Grace were the sixth and fifth youngest, respectively, of a family of 16 children. They were 18 months apart in age. “We always had a party,” says Grace, “because there were so many of us. We were an Irish-Catholic family.” Grace, now 79, lives in Pembroke, where she quilts for her grandchildren and for church missions. She remembers going to school in Sheenboro with her brother. “They used to think we were twins, even though there were 18 months between us,” she says.
Like his older brother, Melvin, who joined the navy, Kemp enlisted, joining the RCAF in high school in 1941. Two other brothers tried to sign up, but were turned down for health reasons. He went overseas in June 1943 and became an air gunner, his last mission was his 11th. “We just thought that, nine more flights and he’d be home,” says Grace. The family waited for word about what had happened to Kemp. Then, in January, they received word that his plane had been shot down and that he had been killed. Subsequent letters to the family revealed more and more details about what had happened to Kemp after he had been shot down. Another letter from the casualties officer said that, based on Red Cross information, when Kemp had been captured, he was taken to Ebernach, Germany. He had died at 9:45 p.m. on 20th of November 1943, “with a Catholic priest at his bedside.” The letter also enclosed a short, handwritten note from Kemp that he had written before going into surgery. But not all the letters came from the casualties officer's desk.
The first remarkable letter came from Father Walter Hauth. He was an assistant priest in Cochem, Germany, and was one of two priests who had administered Kemp's last rites. He wrote, in English, to Kemp's father on 17th of September 1946. “Your dear son smiled when the priest came in,” he wrote. “We had a nice little conversation. I can’t tell you how he was pleased when I heard his confession and gave him the blessing.” Three days after Kemp died, he gave the funeral mass. “Oh, I know I can't give you a word of consolation, I can't give you your dear son again, but I can tell you that he died in peace of God.”
Two letters, apparently unrelated, followed from Bruno Bous, an ambulance driver who received a call to pick up a young, wounded Canadian airman. Bous's letter added another piece to the puzzle of what had happened to Kemp. He wrote that he picked Kemp up from a doctor's private infirmary and transported him to the hospital in Cochem. Bous also was able to provide some information about where Kemp had been buried. “Mr. Morris was buried with full military honours in the cemetery of my native city Cochem. His grave is cared for and there is a cross and flowers. It bears the number 224. If you wish, I will send you a snapshot of the grave, and also of the monastery and the hospital where Mr. Morris died. Please let me know.” Finally, Bous wrote that he had found a blue cap that belonged to Kemp, and offered to send it to the Morrises. Bous wrote again in January 1948, after the Morrises had replied asking for more information. He promised to find out as much as he could. He contacted the hospital director and said that he would find the surgeons who had operated on Kemp.
Bous's efforts bore fruit when, on 13th of Feb. 1948, Dr. Peter Durr, one of the surgeons who had operated on Kemp, wrote a four-page letter describing the night Kemp's plane had been shot down and how he had died. Durr provided the Morrises with the most information yet about their son. He described the night of the bombing raid, and may have been a witness to Kemp's plane being shot down. He also included, to the best of his memory, Kemp's own account to him of being shot down. Because Durr could speak English, he assisted the hospital's chief surgeon in treating Kemp's injuries. “At last we came to the agreement that the only help that could be given to your son would be an operation, in order to see which of the internal parts were injured. Unfortunately, he had been wounded 12 hours earlier. There was less hope to save his life, in case the intestines should be wounded.” In the event, Kemp had been too badly injured to be saved. Nothing more could be done for him. “In case he had been turned in right after the accident it had been possible to save him,” wrote Durr. “But now it was too late. His injury resulted in an inflammation of the peritoneum. The process of the inflammation could not be stopped anymore.” “Everybody of us did his best to help him,” Durr added.
Priest, ambulance driver, doctor all were able, even willing, to tell the Morrises what they knew about their son. Even though Kemp had been on the other side and even though he had been involved in a bombing raid above their homes the night before. Grace remembers the letters well. “They were very touching,” she says.
Indeed, the family was moved enough to send care packages to Germany, sent, she says, to the man looking after her brother's grave. A number of private relief efforts were started after the war to send packages to Germany, official efforts were focused on non-German survivors, says Angelika Sauer, a history professor at Texas Lutheran University who specializes in postwar Canadian-German relations. “They organized clothing drives and collections,” says Sauer. “I seem to remember that they used the CARE program extensively because it was the easiest way to distribute relief in Germany.” Not only that, but the family sponsored, through a church-sponsored farm placement arrangement, a young German man to come to their farm to work for a year.
As for Kemp, his body was moved to a British Military Cemetery at Rheinberg, Germany. The RCAF casualties officer confirmed the exact location of his grave in a letter dated 12th Jan. 1949. In July 2002, Grace and her daughter took time out from an organized group trip to Ireland to visit Kemp's gravesite in Rheinberg. There were flowers at every gravesite, says Grace. “You couldn’t help but cry when you got there,” she says.
First published in The Equity, 5th Nov. 2003.

Joe Kelly

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Flt.Sgt. John Hugh MacEachern 429 (Bison) Squadron

John MacEachern left via Pier 21 as a young man from Glace Bay, Nova Scotia and as a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force on his way to England during World War II. He was eventually stationed at Leeming with the 429 Bison Squadron where he assumed the position of rear-gunner on the Halifax bombers.
He also returned home via Pier 21 after a horrific accident which occurred in Leeming when a plane his crew borrowed from the 427 squadron (it was a Halifax III Rg-347 coded ZL-P we believe?) blew a tire at take-off on 27th of February 1945. The full complement of bombs and gasoline on board to be used for their mission resulted in a devastating explosion. John was the only crew member to survive and with all his injuries and burns it was considered a miracle that he himself survived.
He returned home to Nova Scotia through Pier 21 in a full body cast due to a broken neck and tried his very best to deal with his physical injuries, burns and the emotional scars left from losing his dear friends.
John eventually married Mary Christine Mac Donald, also from Glace Bay and they raised eight children together. John sadly passed away on April 14, 2001. He is dearly missed by family and friends. His crew members who died that February day and second family as he referred to them were,
F/O Richard M. Scott, Pilot, from Lacombe Alberta
F/O Fred Fisher, Flight Engineer, Welland, Ont.
F/O S. Carson, Navigator, Toronto, Ont.
F/O K.F. Whitehouse, Bomb Aimer, Toronto, Ont.
P/O A. Mackie, Wireless Operator, Toronto, Ont.
F/Sgt M.J. Brewer, Mid-Upper Gunner, Kingman, Alberta

We should never forget the extraordinary sacrifices that John and his crew made for us all.

Doreen Burke

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Flt.Lt. Elmer Joseph "Bob" Hawn DFC 429 (Bison) Squadron

My dad Elmer Hawn was stationed at York, where he was a pilot with 429 Bison Squadron.
After the war, we moved to Lehbridge, Alberta in Canada, where Dad was a Research Scientist at the Lethbridge Research Station. 429 Squadron is affiliated with the Lethbridge Royal Canadian Legion, who sponsor a fly-past annually on Remembrance Day. Currently my mother, who is 99 (born in 1919) is the only living widow of Dad's crew, and has been honoured several times by the RCL at their Remembrance Day ceremonies. He died in April 1991

Sheila Matson

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LAC. Stewart Steele Kenyon 429 Squadon

Stewart Kenyon served with 429 Squadron. Stewart died in 1991

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Jack Horner 429 (Bison) Squadron

Bomb Aimer Jack Horner flew from RAF Leeming with 429 (Bison) Squadron, his crew mates were Doug Williams, Don Schurman, Wesley Milne and Victor Garland

Elaine Dove

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Wesley Milne 429 (Bison) Squadron

Navigator Wesley Milne flew with Doug Williams, Don Schurman, Victor Garland and Jack Horner from Leeming, Yorkshire with 429 (Bison) Squadron.

Elaine Dove

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Don Schurman 429 (Bison) Squadron

Wireless operator Don Schurman flew with 429 (Bison) Squadron stationed in Leeming, Yorkshire.
His fellow Crew members were Victor Garland, Doug Williams, Navigator Wesley Milne and Bomb Aimer Jack Horner.

Elaine Dove

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P/O. Doug Williams 429 (Bison) Squadron

Victor Garland joined up in 1943 to Royal Air Force, trained in St Athans, Wales then transferred to a Canadian squadron, 429 (Bison) Squadron stationed in Leeming, Yorkshire. Other Crew members were all Canadian, Pilot Officer Doug Williams, Wireless operator Don Schurman, Navigator Wesley Milne and Bomb Aimer Jack Horner.

Elaine Dove

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Flt.Sgt. Herbert Ingle Austin 429 Squadron (d.23rd April 1944)

Flight Sergeant (Wireless Op./Air Gunner) Bert Austin was the Son of Herbert and Emily Ingle Austin, husband of Olive Austin of Halton, Yorkshire. He was 39 years old and is buried in the Herkingen General Cemetery, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.

s flynn

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No. 429 (Bison) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force

Logbooks

Those known to have served with
No. 429 (Bison) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force
during the Second World War 1939-1945.

The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.

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No. 429 (Bison) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force

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Those known to have served with No. 429 (Bison) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Forceduring the Second World War 1939-1945.

The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.

Announcements

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The Wartime Memories Project
- No. 429 (Bison) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War -

Those known to have served with
No. 429 (Bison) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force
during the Second World War 1939-1945.