The feats of soldiers that gave their lives for our freedom are incredibly important and to live on in our consciousness, they need to be remembered.
A BC man is taking on that challenge, and thanks to reporting from The Drumheller Mail, he was able to complete the story of the 645 Squadrons that flew Lancasters in World War II.
The Mail brought readers the story of the Andersons of Craigmyle in its 2016 Remembrance Day section. The three brothers died in World War II. Their mother, Mrs. Dagnie Anderson, was the Silver Cross Mother in 1959 and travelled to Ottawa for the Remembrance Day ceremonies.
The article caught the attention of Jack Albrecht, a retired family physician, aviation physician, pilot, and writer. His uncle and namesake was a bomber pilot and read the story and contacted the Mail in March.
“My retirement project was to document the 74 Lancasters and crews that were shot down in the Second World War and the 389 crew members of the RAF, RCAF and Royal Australia Air Force that were killed in action,” said Albrecht.
He has completed about 20 so far, the last one on 645 Squadron. Fl/Sgt Lloyd Anderson was a gunner.
“In each one there is always something that sparks an interest and with this one, it was Lloyd Anderson,” he said.
Shortly after war broke out in Europe, twins Billy and Jimmy Anderson joined the RCAF and did their basic training at the new Penhold Base as well as Edmonton and Manitoba. Both enlisted as pilots. Lloyd was 25 when he enlisted in the RCAF as a pilot. He trained at bases in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. He was grounded after a training accident and then was sent to Trenton, Ontario, where he became an air gunner.
With Thomas Musgrove Nicholls as pilot, on March 30, 1944, the crew departed on their 21st operation as a crew, their 13th in this particular Lancaster. They failed to return.
The Mail was able to connect him with local veteran Ray Hummel, who had valuable information and artifacts, including letters that helped fill in some of the story of Sgt. Anderson and his family.
"It was incredible. Ray Hummel even went out and took some photos for me,” he said.
“This one was a gratifying one to do. When you start one, it is like taking off on a cross-country trip, you never know where you are going to land, and how it is going to morph. And of course, what morphed out of that one is the story of the three sons.”
The family was honoured in the mid-1950’s when the Grade1-8 school at the Penhold Air Base was named the Andersons of Craigmyle School.
The school lasted until the mid-1990’s when the air base closed, and upon the urging of his mother, Hummel phoned the commander of Penhold. He went and packed up a number of artifacts, including some pictures, which he mounted and donated to Craigmyle and they are posted in the community hall. He also had a plaque mounted in granite, which was placed with the grave of the boys’ parents at Craigmyle.
Albrecht’s work on the 645 Squadron has been published on www.aircrewremembered.com and will appear shortly on his own website www.jalbrecht.ca/
