80th. Anryensney

©

AIR FORCE

Continued from Page 10
1,350 horsepower Packard B12
engines that could reach 47 knots.
But to power a boat 70-feet long
that could go that fast took a lot of
fuel — as much as 110 gallons in
an hour, recalls Maude.

During the war, Pat Bay Air”

Station was an important base on
the Pacific, but it saw no action.

There were always expectations
of enemy activity but none was
witnessed off Vancouver Island.

The shelling of a lighthouse and
Tadio station by the Japanese at
Estevan Point on June 20, 1942

<> was the most dramatic event of the
war on the B.C coast.

After the shelling every air
Squadron on the coast was put on
full alert but only one plane made
it to Estevan Point to investigate.

‘He ran up from the
marine section
and was able fo
heave some of the
wreckage around
and pull one or
two people ouf of
if

A Stranraer with no radar from
Bella Bella arrived in darkness
and returned home two-and-a-half
hours later with nothing to report.

A fully armed Beaufort bomber
was dispatched from Pat Bay but it
never got off the ground; crashing
into a stone wall. Squadrons at
Coal Harbour and Ucluelet could
not make night flights.

The limited response indicates
just how peaceful the B: Cc coast
was in those years.

Maude recalls that a friend of
his from the marine squadron ran
to the crashed Beaufort and saved
several people.

“He ran up from the marine
section and was able to heave
some of the wreckage around and

> pull one or two people out of it. He
got the British Empire Medal for
that.”

The only other excitement
around Pat Bay at the time was the
filming of Son of Lassie, in 1944,
starring Peter Lawford. The Saa-
nich Peninsula doubled for the
coast of Norway and 122 Squad-
ron supplied their Bristol Boling-
brokes.

For local aviation history buffs
there are also shots of P-40 Kitty-

hawks stationed at Pat Bay.

When the war ended in 1946 the
RCAF continued to operated the
air station until 1948, when the
Department of Transport took it
over for civilian flights.

The RCAF remained on the west
side of the airport and, until the
1970s, VU-33 Squadron did much
the same work which HS 443 does
today, anti-submarine warfare and
search and rescue.

The RCAF also kept the only
steel hangar that was then on the
base which Canadian Forces still

use, with additions and modifica-

tions, to house 443,

After 50 years the airport may j

have changed, but there are still
plenty of reminders of the era.

The B.C. Aviation Museum,
located on Canora Road on the
east side of the airport, has a
vintage Curtiss P-40E “‘Kitty-
hawk” and are restoring an old
Bolingbroke.

The P-40, in immaculate condi-
tion, was bought by Maude in
1946 for $50 and although it has
had various work done on it
throughout the years it is, accord-
ing to the museum, “the most
original P-40 in existence today ...
totally stock — virtually
unchanged from the day it left the
Royal Canadian Air Force.”

The Bolingbroke, also bought by
Maude after the war for only $35,
is now being restored after being
cannibalized for various agricul-
tural purposes at a farm in Fulford
Harbour.

The rest of the old planes are
gone, and only Maude and a few
others continue on at Pat Bay after
the fight for freedom ended five
decades ago.

Sidney is left with a considera-
ble history in aviation, much of it
preserved by the B.C. Aviation
Museum, but some believe that’s
not where the real legacy is.

The real legacy is that the Cana-
dian Forces on Saanich Peninsula
still protect what thousands of
men and women who passed
through Pat Bay Air Station fought
for.

lg’ The War Amps
> of Canada

1992
90 HP —ELPTO $5,513.71

includes — prop & controls
regular — $6,957.00

LIST PRICE

SALE PRICE

20 M — $2.665.00 — $2,112.00
9.9 M — $2,148.00 — $1,702.00
8 M — $1,791.00 — $1,419.00
8 ML — $1,832.00 — $1,451.00
SIMILAR SAVINGS ON
2.5 to 275 HP

Wednesday, July 29,1992 — 11

TheReview

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