{"id":8,"date":"2018-06-15T22:50:08","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T22:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grad.journalism.torontomu.ca\/fromthedepths\/?page_id=8"},"modified":"2018-11-09T04:19:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T04:19:11","slug":"home-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/grad.journalism.torontomu.ca\/fromthedepths\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Depths"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][rev_slider_vc alias=”TITLE”][vc_column_text]On a September afternoon in 1997, a group of men set to work exhuming a grave. Knee-deep in the mud of a Belgian bog, they sifted through the remains of downed World War Two-era bomber, trying to uncover the story of the plane and its lost crew.<\/p>\n

Karl Kjarsgaard headed the operation. As director of Halifax 57 Canada, an aircraft recovery group focused on Handley Page Halifaxes, he often receives tips about their location, whether that be in English fields, the Irish Sea, or in this case, six metres under the mud.<\/p>\n

The recovery of the plane, a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) bomber stamped with the serial number LW682 at the time of its manufacture, had been a salvage operation. The crew knew they weren\u2019t going to find a whole plane, but were still optimistic that some parts would be in useable condition. It was the second project that Halifax 57, the Canadian branch of an English group, had ever accomplished. They had pulled another downed Halifax from a lake in Norway just two years earlier and were looking for parts to contribute to its rebuilding. So when Kjarsgaard was approached by the family members of three of the plane\u2019s Canadian crew, asking him to bring them to the surface, he readily accepted.<\/p>\n

The plane had been reduced to scrap metal after it had crashed in 1943, but the team crowded around it as it was released from decades deep in the earth were still hopeful their efforts hadn\u2019t been entirely for naught.<\/p>\n

Not much of it was left and what was wouldn\u2019t be enough to significantly contribute to the rebuild.<\/p>\n

Despite the condition of the plane, LW682 held a remarkable number of still-intact personal effects, such as parts of uniform tunics and watch casings. One of the nearby town\u2019s residents, who had recovered an axe from the crash site as a boy, approached the recovery team to return it.<\/p>\n

The group adhered to the old adage that had been the mantra of Second World War aircrews\u2014 \u201cWe press on regardless.\u201d The focus shifted entirely on recovering the remains of the crew members. Back in Canada, three families waited to hear whether the long-MIA men could become war dead, receive a proper burial and finally have their stories come to a close.<\/p>\n

Kjarsgaard always makes sure to call before he digs\u2014before he secures permission from foreign governments, he has it from the families. With permission from their descendents, the men\u2019s bodies were recovered and given a proper military burial by the Belgian government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe dug up the entire airplane and we found the three guys inside,\u201d Kjarsgaard says. \u201cIt’s one thing to have a guy missing in action. It’s another thing where someone says to you, \u2018My uncle’s buried here.\u2019 So we gave them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

When aircrew are no longer around to tell their stories, it falls on the objects they used, their planes included, to serve as reminders of their time in combat. This motivates groups like Halifax 57 to dig through the wreckage. \u201cIt gives you a goal, pulling that stuff up,\u201d says Scott Knox, an engineer with Halifax 57. \u201cThe prime objective here is, not only are you digging up an aircraft, but you are dusting off these stories that may not have ever been told.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada has approximately 50,000 remaining World War Two veterans\u2014as they die, their first-hand-accounts are being lost. Those lost during the war were never able to share their stories. Many who returned to Canada are unwilling to relive their wartime experiences as a result of \u201ccombat fatigue\u201d (the common term for post-traumatic stress disorder at the time).<\/p>\n

Bomber Command, the RCAF group in control of English and Canadian bombing operations, had some of the highest casualty rates of the war. Of the 120,000 enlisted airmen, 55,573 were killed, including more than 10,000 Canadians. It becomes the work of museums to keep what stories have been shared alive\u2014either via first-hand accounts or through the physical artifacts of combat.<\/p>\n

But another group of dedicated individuals\u2014some former air force members, others the children of veterans\u2014have taken it upon themselves to preserve the history of the \u201cbomber boys\u201d via the grandest gesture possible: recovering the aircraft they flew in.<\/p>\n

Halifax 57 is one such group, focused on unearthing the bombing aircraft heavily used by Canadians during the war and educating the public about them.<\/p>\n

Every part of the Halifax bomber has a manufacturing serial number with the prefix 57\u2014the group includes the number in its title because it represents its goal of unifying all of the aircraft\u2019s pieces.<\/p>\n

Seventy per cent of all Canadian aircrew who saw combat did so in the belly of a Halifax. The Halifax\u2019s \u201cunderdog\u201d status as a bomber when compared to the Avro Lancaster, a larger aircraft with a greater bomb-carrying capacity, is apparent from its lack of presence in museums. There are five restored Lancasters across Canada, including one of two in flying condition at the Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ont. Another four are currently being restored by other museums across the country.<\/p>\n

There is a single restored Halifax in Canada in Trenton, Ont., and one in Yorkshire, U.K., not far from the town of Halifax that the plane is named for. A final Halifax sits in London\u2019s RAF Museum in the condition it was found in, a waterlogged skeleton. None of the 6,178 built during wartime were brought back to Canada for posterity. When Canadian airmen returned home, their Halifaxes remained in Europe, either sold for parts or scrap metal or in the grasp of whatever Norwegian lake or plot of English countryside they\u2019d crashed into. Groups such as Halifax 57 aim to find these aircraft, make them whole again and give them a home in Canada.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s what keeps one small group of Halifax 57 volunteers from a town in southern Alberta motivated during their largest project to date.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]With the Norway recovery in 1995 and the subsequent one in Belgium, Halifax 57 has established itself as a significant Halifax recovery group\u2014Kjarsgaard\u2019s passion is renowned in aircraft restoration circles.<\/p>\n

Brushing aside the guts-and-glory narrative of bringing a bomber home, the costs of this type of work are high. Labour-intensive and highly expensive, the most successful operations are privately funded. Vintage Wings of Canada, an Ottawa-based restoration facility founded by former Cognos CEO Michael Potter, is one such organization. It has a 2,100 square metre hangar and dedicated staff involved in the maintenance of over 20 restored aircraft, many in flying condition. For groups like Halifax 57, however, funding comes largely from government grants, fundraising and, when all else fails, members\u2019 pockets\u2014regardless of passion, when the money runs out, the work stops.<\/p>\n

Kjarsgaard\u2019s most recent tip, in 2016, was about a downed plane discovered in shallow water just off the coast of Sweden. The wreck of a Halifax with the call sign HR871 sat undisturbed in 20 metres of brackish water since 1943. In 2012, a team of Swedish divers backed by Lund University stumbled upon part of the wreck jutting out of the sand. Since then, Kjarsgaard and his group have been calling up government officials in Canada and Sweden to secure permission to dive. After unsuccessful summer dive seasons both years prior, the dive to finally pull the plane from the sea was set for early May 2018. As weather has continued to impede progress, the team is hopeful they will be able to dive before September.<\/p>\n

At the moment, the focus is on trying to drum up interest and funding\u2014in volunteer restoration groups, the two are synonymous.<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content”][vc_column][vc_column_text]