Arthur Massey Berry, also known as Matt Berry, was born on 19
June 1888 in March, Ontario. A Captain in the 153 Battalion of
the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Berry was transferred to
England when WWI broke out. Once there, he transferred to the
Royal Flying Corps. He later returned to Canada where he took up
the duties of a flight instructor.
After the war, he developed exceptional skills both as a bush
pilot and in northern terrain flying. He is well known for his
rescues into the northern regions of Canada.
On 17 August 1936, two Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF)
personnel, Flight Lieutenant S. Coleman and Aircraftman Joseph
Forty, took off to fly to Fort Reliance. The two were caught in
a storm that forced them to land on an unidentified lake. Once
the storm cleared, they placed an oil drum on the shore with a
note stating that they would attempt to fly south. The two took
off and flew until they were out of fuel, landing at another
small lake.
After several weeks, the six aircraft search teams working on
the case had only found the oil drum with the message. Matt
Berry, from Canadian Airways, came in to assist the rescue
effort. He found the pilots after he followed a line of flight
from where the oil drum was found and based his direction on
what he himself would have done in similar circumstances.
Berry was called upon again to rescue a small group of
priests and Inuit. A message arrived stating that the group was
stranded at Letty Harbour, along the Arctic coast. The Canadian
Government asked Berry and the air engineer Rex Terpening of
Canadian Airways to rescue them.
They flew out from Aklavik on 11 December with a
Junkers monoplane
equipped with skis. At this altitude the compass was of no use,
so Berry had to keep track of his direction by watching the
ground - a difficult task because of the dim arctic conditions.
The extreme wind they also faced made flying very difficult, but
later proved a benefit when they arrived at Letty Harbour:
flying into the wind was keeping them at such a slow forward
speed that when they landed in the drifts, there was no damage
to the Junkers.
When they arrived, the duo found that the food supplies at
the small mission were nearly all gone, thanks to bears who had
taken most of their fish. On 12 December, they were able to take
off and the two airmen flew to a cache of supplies to later
return with about 1,500 lbs of food. The weather turned bad and
they were not able to fly out again for 10 days.
On 22 December, it appeared that the weather was good enough
to fly so all of the inhabitants and the dogs were loaded into
the Junkers. The plane took off, but the weather suddenly turned
bad again, and they landed at a small lake where they spent the
night.
The next day the group once again climbed into the Junkers,
turned the craft toward Aklavik, and made it, landing with only
three and one half litres of fuel left.
In recognition of his rescues, Berry was awarded the McKee
Trophy in 1936, to honour those who made a significant
contribution to aviation in Canada.
In 1942, he assisted the United States government in
constructing airfields in the north, advancing northern
transportation and the construction of the CANOL Project: a
pipeline constructed between 1942 and 1944 between Norman Wells
in the North West Territories and Whitehorse. The pipeline had a
total distance of about 1000 kilometres.
Arthur Massey Berry died on 12 May 1970, and was inducted
into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973.
The Canol Pipeline Contract – Ray Farrell
Rae Farrell discusses the Canol Pipeline Contract.
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