King bomber pilot’s saga comes full circle

October 22, 2013 · 0 Comments

King bomber pilot Alex Campbell is seen in the cockpit of a Lancaster bomber, now, and during the Second World War. Campbell hosted visitors from France, who live near where his bomber went down in 1944.

By Wendy Allen and Mark Pavilons
Supporters, friends and special visitors gathered at the King City seniors’ centre Oct. 4 to honour one of Canada’s few remaining Second World War pilots.
Lancaster pilot Alex Campbell, 90, was treated to a gather, partially to say farewell to some very special visitors from France.
Michel and Isabelle Leroueil of Ozoir-le-Breuil, France spent some time getting to know the Campbells. Michel lives in the area where Alex’s Lancaster crashed the night of July 28, l944 and over the past 20 years, Michel has slowly discovered the events that led to Alex’s safe recovery by the French Underground. He also found the exact location where the Lancaster crashed as Michel works on that field every year. He is the manager of a large farm operation.
One year ago, Bob, Donna and Wendy Campbell travelled to France to meet Michel and to trace their father’s footsteps from WWII. The people in France, who are directly connected to the story were very disappointed that Alex was not able to fly to France for this occasion so when the Campbells left France, they told Michel that he will just have to come to Canada to meet Alex and his wife Hazel.
This was their first trip to North America and the long-awaited meeting was a very joyous occasion as the couple arrived at the home of The Campbells on William Street in King City. Alex and Hazel had hired Sam Martin, son of Jody Pollock, a neighbour, to be the interpreter for that first evening together. He did a remarkable job keeping up to all the questions and expressions.
Michel and Isabelle were here for one week and during that time, The Campbells made sure they experienced as much of Canada as possible. This included a trip to Algonquin Park and a night at the Bartlett Lodge where they rode in a large canoe to reach their cabins. The colours in Algonquin the last weekend of September were absolutely glorious.
Another highlight of the trip was visiting the Heritage Warplane Museum in Hamilton, where the Campbells and guests dined in the large domed banquet room after touring the excellent museum. The famous Lancaster was away on duty at a ceremony in Trenton that weekend, but all fingers were crossed in hopes of its return to Hamilton that afternoon.    No one was disappointed – the Lanc landed beautifully in front of the gathered crowd.
The pilots and crew came over to talk with Alex and as soon as the Lancaster was moved inside the hangar, Alex was the first one up the ladder and climbed through the difficult obstacle course inside and finally reached the pilot’s seat.
A huge cheer went up from the crowd when Alex appeared in the seat and gave the thumb’s up sign.   Two of Alex’s grandchildren accompanied him in the cockpit, as well as crew members of this aircraft.   Alex told them his incredible story of his 25th mission and how the entire assault happened. Then Michel was given a turn to sit in the pilot’s seat – something he probably never dreamed would happen to him!
Michel and Isabelle were then taken to Niagara Falls for the night with a fantastic view of the Falls from their hotel.
On Thursday, they were in Toronto where they visited the church of one of Alex’s crew members – Bob Giffin. Giffin was the only man not to survive the attack on July 28, 1944. He is buried in a Commonwealth War Cemetery very close to where Michel and Isabelle live in France. The only reason they wanted to go to Toronto was to visit this church and to see where Bob Giffin lived at 111 Tyndall Ave. in the west end of Toronto. There is an apartment building now where his house once stood.
They then drove south a few blocks to King Street and parked in front of Holy Family Roman Catholic Church. Through his research Michel had found Giffin’s home this church was just a few blocks away. Michel’s research into Giffin’s past was what led him to Alex and the Campbell family.
Michel and Isabel has brought two small bouquets of wheat harvested this year on one of the fields Michel works on – the very same field that the Lancaster.
They met with one of the priests at the church, who spoke fluent French, so they told him the story.
Unfortunately, there are no definitive records kept of Giffin’s involvement in that parish.
On the final day of the visitors’ stay, the group travelled to see Alex’s original white farmhouse on Keele Street.
Back at the Campbell house, Alex brought down his box of wartime papers to the dining room table.   Michel and Isabelle were speechless to see some of the items Alex showed them, including an original Franc bill from the war. It is very large and Alex had his comrades from the Freteval Forest sign this banknote – there were many, many signatures on it. Michel had never seen an authentic one before, only copies of them.
Then Alex got out his log book which has every mission recorded and the destination.
Michel was incredulous to learn some of the locations were very close to where he lives now, but back in the war, the Germans had taken over many factories in that area of France so they were targets for the Allies.
The week was capped off perfectly at the King City seniors’ centre with a most-welcoming reception for Michel and Isabelle.
King Mayor Steve Pellegrini was on hand to present a certificate to Alex for his contributions to his community and his country.
In many ways, Alex Campbell’s historic wartime story has come full circle.
It’s reassuring to know just how important the efforts of Allied pilots are regarded in France, even to this day.

That fateful night

Enemy cannon fire pierced the wing, hitting the fuel tanks. The engines caught fire and Campbell guided the plane in a circular descending pattern so the crew could bail out. He was the last to leave, and almost didn’t make it, having to struggle with his parachute and freeing one of his feet caught in the cockpit.
In the darkness of night he jumped with only seconds to spare, hitting the ground with a thud. He reached over and grabbed the earth beneath him, realizing he landed on terra firma and was still alive.

“Then I felt it was earth, so I grabbed a handful to see, and sure enough, that was earth. It almost brought tears to my eyes to think that, ‘oh, God, I’m alive.’ I realized I’d probably be taken prisoner, but at least I knew I would be alive and able to see my twenty-first birthday next month.”

All but one of his crew survived. Bob Giffin died shortly after bailing out, apparently getting tangled in his chute.
Earl “Judy” Garland had taken two shells through his leg during the fighter attack, and was taken prisoner shortly after parachuting out of the stricken bomber. He spent the rest of the war in a POW camp.
Alex “Red” Campbell, Ben Lyons, Sam Harvey, Earl “Jonesy” Jones, Jack “Chappie” Chapman and Jock Donaldson spent three weeks in the Freteval forest before being rescued by the advancing allies. The French harboured roughly 150 airmen in that forest, hiding them from the enemy.