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Edward Bryce Chase

Edward Bryce Chase was born in North Battleford, Saskatchewan in 1923. After joining the RCAF, he underwent elementary flying at No. 16 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) in Edmonton, and then No. 7 Service Flying Training School (SFTS) in Macleod, Alberta. He would eventually be posted to Southeast Asia where he flew transport operations.

In this excerpt, Edward Bryce Chase recalls the events that occurred before being posted for aircrew training, and describes some of the rigours of guard duty on the Canadian Prairies.

Shortly after my 18th birthday on June 6, 1941, I applied to join the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). On August 8, I was enrolled for aircrew. Shortly thereafter, I arrived at No. 2 Manning Depot in Brandon. My diary records that, after many needles, much drill instruction, classes on what makes the Air Force tick, and being equipped with uniforms, I was posted to an aircrew holding unit at No. 37 Bombing and Gunnery school at Paulson (near Dauphin), Manitoba.

At Paulson, I had a variety of duties, which included stoking wood-burning heaters in all the barrack blocks, shovelling coal into the hoppers of furnaces that heated the hangars, putting fuses into 11-1/2-pound practice bombs and loading 30-calibre cartridges into pans to be fired by air gunner trainees learning to fire the Vickers machine gun...

On December 20, I was posted to No. 32 Service Flying Training School (SFTS) at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to do guard duty. This consisted of patrolling one of two "beats" inside the fence "to prevent saboteurs from destroying military property." It soon became evident that no saboteur in his right mind was going to face the bitter winter weather in Southern Saskatchewan to destroy some Harvard training aircraft. As a result, a good deal of guard duty was served in the furnace rooms of aircraft hangars. 

There were, however, two notable exceptions. Very late one night a Royal Air Force (RAF) airman arrived at the fence, well beyond the hour that he should have returned to camp. Fearing arrest, he was trying to climb over the perimeter fence some distance from the guard house. In his inebriated state, he was unable to negotiate the barbed wire protruding outward at the top of the fence. By shoving my rifle through the fence near the top, he was able to step on it and clamber over without risking his trousers and/or his "private parts" and being put on charge.

On the other occasion, the Sergeant in charge of the guards ventured out one very cold night to see if we were doing our duty. Being bitterly cold, I had gone into the hangar to warm up. Suddenly, that "second sense" that has protected me throughout my life, warned me to get back out on my beat. Alas, the Sergeant had passed the hangar and was headed down towards the far end of my patrol area. Happily, the snow was cold and crunchy, and by taking much longer steps but keeping in step with him, I was able to catch up before he reached my sentry box. As he was about to turn around, I shouted "Halt, Who Goes There." I must have about frightened the life out of him, for he never appeared again while I was at Moose Jaw.