Training in Canada, 1944

[corsair5517]

...there's been a few more photos come light since dads' death last year, and I thought I might share them with y'all...


The program for Dads' Wings Parade...






The notice appointing him as a Pilot Officer


Walking the streets of Toronto with Canadians, variously; remember, he was just 21 years old!




Dad took these from Harvards over Dunnville, I would assume...



Cadet D E Stokes in the front seat of a Harvard...

[Antonio]

Very, very precious

[davidd]

All the 23 RNZAF personnel on this list were pilots of course, and all embarked NZ for Canada 11th November 1943 as LAC A/P u/t, having received their elementary training on Tiger Moths at Taieri, Ashburton, or Harewood. All graduated at 6 SFTS, Dunville as P/Os (11) or Sgts (12) 5/5/44, and all returned to NZ in late June or July 1944. They were then sent to Fighter OTU, then onto F4U Corsairs at Admore, and thence to operational squadrons. All survived the war excepting R E Hallett, killed in Corsair 3/2/45. Parry died in Christchurch 6/11/54.

[corsair5517]

one more new one which is a form I haven’t seen before,

600152B2-A2EE-4B3B-8F88-D962A1C3B33D by John Stokes, on Flickr

[corsair5517]

… and the original of his commissioning letter…


87691DA4-A6CE-42FD-8305-3BDFD2F17E8D by John Stokes, on Flickr

[Dave Homewood]

Great to see you got Flickr sorted, John. Really interesting to see that ferrying form that your Dad signed for ferrying Corsair NZ5631.

[corsair5517]

Yeah… I’m not a quick study, but I get there eventually!! 😆

NZ5631 was the last Corsair he ever flew, from Bougainville to Rukuhia, so something of a bittersweet moment, I would imagine.